Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Director Yukiko Omura Sells 3,599 Shares

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,593.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $79.00 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.13 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.38. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $58.27 and a 1-year high of $96.60.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $202.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 13.19% and a net margin of 61.17%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 43.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.58%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AGO. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,088,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the second quarter worth $1,413,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at $151,000. Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,005 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $849,000 after buying an additional 153 shares during the period. Finally, Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,691,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have weighed in on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th.

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.