Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Position Boosted by DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 60.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,697 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,764 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $347,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1,990.0% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 60,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,308,000 after purchasing an additional 57,928 shares in the last quarter. Wealthstar Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 279.2% during the 1st quarter. Wealthstar Advisors LLC now owns 15,426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,346,000 after buying an additional 11,358 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 42.7% in the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 24,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,105,000 after acquiring an additional 7,222 shares during the period. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the first quarter valued at approximately $885,000. Finally, Symmetry Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the first quarter valued at approximately $908,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $81.02 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.26 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52-week low of $58.27 and a 52-week high of $96.60.

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

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is 9.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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 value of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

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.