Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Stock Holdings Decreased by Fmr LLC

Fmr LLC cut its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 27.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 81,149 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 30,515 shares during the period. Fmr LLC owned about 0.15% of Assured Guaranty worth $6,453,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGO. CWM LLC raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 535.9% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,965 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 1,656 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,389,000. LRI Investments LLC raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.5% in the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 292,867 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,595,000 after purchasing an additional 9,971 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 5.1% in the second quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 44,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,457,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $962,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGO has been the topic of several research reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,593.05. This represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 5.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:AGO opened at $90.70 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $71.11 and a 1 year high of $96.60. The company has a market cap of $4.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.05 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $87.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $81.63.

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

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date was 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.