Heck Capital Advisors LLC Invests $97,000 in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $97,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Gladius Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 66.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 183.8% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 596 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 155.8% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 388 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AGO. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.8 %

AGO opened at $94.66 on Monday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $72.57 and a 1-year high of $96.60. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $90.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $84.87. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a PE ratio of 7.36 and a beta of 1.12.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $1.00. The company had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. Assured Guaranty’s quarterly revenue was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.63%.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

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.