Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Sold by Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. cut its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 18.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 437,568 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 98,597 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned 0.86% of Assured Guaranty worth $39,385,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.3% in the third quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 11,426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $909,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 11,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $911,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 66.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,647 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after buying an additional 233 shares during the period. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its position in Assured Guaranty by 6.5% in the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

AGO opened at $86.32 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $90.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $87.22. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $72.57 and a 12-month high of $96.50. The firm has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.71 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by ($0.07). Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The business had revenue of $199.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $199.56 million. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This is an increase from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 19.94%.

Assured Guaranty 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.