Seven Eight Capital LP Has $589,000 Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Seven Eight Capital LP increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 47.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,629 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,443 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $589,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the first quarter worth approximately $35,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter valued at $46,000. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at $53,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Assured Guaranty by 24.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 55.7% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AGO. StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. 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 report on Friday, August 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised 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 report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Tuesday, July 9th.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,423,321.19. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE AGO opened at $81.07 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $58.27 and a 1-year high of $96.60. The company has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.26 and a beta of 1.11. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $78.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $79.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $202.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. Assured Guaranty’s quarterly revenue was down 43.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.58%.

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.