Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Acquired by Engineers Gate Manager LP

Engineers Gate Manager LP lifted its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 568.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 36,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 31,416 shares during the quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $2,961,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AGO. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at about $463,926,000. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 7,687.3% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 3,862,750 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,638,000 after purchasing an additional 3,813,147 shares during the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,885,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $169,483,000 after purchasing an additional 42,311 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $131,589,000 after purchasing an additional 131,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,480,000 after purchasing an additional 132,351 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AGO has been the subject of several research reports. Weiss Ratings lowered Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Assured Guaranty has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $72.98 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 0.73. The business has a 50-day moving average of $79.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $79.98. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $72.13 and a fifty-two week high of $92.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.64.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 37.34% and a return on equity of 7.11%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were given a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.27%.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured bought 209,388 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $24.83 per share, for a total transaction of $5,199,104.04. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 1,212,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $30,096,591.98. This trade represents a 20.88% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) is a Bermuda-based financial services company that provides financial guarantees and related credit enhancement products. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company helps support the repayment of debt issued by public-sector entities, infrastructure projects and other borrowers.

The company’s principal business is financial guaranty insurance, which generally protects investors against scheduled principal and interest payment defaults on insured obligations.