Royce & Associates LP Boosts Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Royce & Associates LP raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 13.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 981,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 114,308 shares during the period. Assured Guaranty comprises about 0.7% of Royce & Associates LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Royce & Associates LP owned 1.86% of Assured Guaranty worth $78,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AGO. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 39.0% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $411,000 after acquiring an additional 1,320 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the first quarter valued at $395,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 261.3% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 40,265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,513,000 after acquiring an additional 29,121 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 63.1% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 124,404 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $10,854,000 after acquiring an additional 48,125 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 86,267 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,527,000 after acquiring an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. This represents a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AGO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group upped their price target on Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 2.9 %

AGO stock opened at $91.54 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $65.39 and a 12-month high of $96.60. The business’s 50-day moving average is $82.61 and its 200 day moving average is $79.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.11 and a beta of 1.10.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $1.00. The firm had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.63%.

About Assured Guaranty

Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments.