Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Sold by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 22.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 140,961 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 39,789 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 0.28% of Assured Guaranty worth $11,209,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 293.6% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 126,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,773,000 after purchasing an additional 94,486 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 214.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 24,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,980,000 after buying an additional 16,956 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $870,000. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,691,000. Finally, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at $1,088,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $86.07 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $89.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $83.49. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $72.57 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. 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 has a market capitalization of $4.38 billion, a PE ratio of 6.69 and a beta of 1.12.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $1.00. The company had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.