XTX Topco Ltd Buys New Stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 11,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $870,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AGO. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter worth about $41,609,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty in the first quarter worth about $25,554,000. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 37.4% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 678,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,322,000 after acquiring an additional 184,621 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in 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 during the period. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $3,859,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:AGO opened at $81.07 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.26 and a beta of 1.11. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $58.27 and a twelve month high of $96.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.91.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $202.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 61.17% and a return on equity of 13.19%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 43.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 EPS for the current 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGO has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group cut their target price 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 shares of Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of 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 issued a $110.00 price objective 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.