Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Sold by New York State Teachers Retirement System

New York State Teachers Retirement System lowered its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 28,132 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 644 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $2,105,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,358 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $445,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 3,964 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $240,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Eaton Vance Management grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Eaton Vance Management now owns 10,252 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $653,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 16,041 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $971,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 28.7% during the 2nd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,117 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total value of $5,083,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,450,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGO has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $92.00 price target (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday, April 1st.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $78.44 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.58. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $49.84 and a 12-month high of $96.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market cap of $4.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.32 and a beta of 1.12.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $4.57. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The business had revenue of $233.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $196.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.22 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 10.00%.

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.