Merit Financial Group LLC Buys New Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $250,000.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,005,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,531,000 after purchasing an additional 28,026 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 84,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,596,000 after buying an additional 2,835 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 9,704 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $873,000 after acquiring an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 39.3% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,659 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $239,000 after acquiring an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 926,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $73,670,000 after acquiring an additional 2,953 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AGO shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of AGO opened at $92.23 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The business has a fifty day moving average of $90.43 and a 200 day moving average of $84.38. The company has a market cap of $4.69 billion, a PE ratio of 7.17 and a beta of 1.12. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52-week low of $72.57 and a 52-week high of $96.60.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. The company had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.42 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is currently 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.