Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Bought by Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 73.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,561 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $452,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 226,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,935,000 after purchasing an additional 21,025 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,882,000 after buying an additional 67,613 shares during the last quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.5% during the third quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. now owns 161,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,784,000 after buying an additional 12,621 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter worth $174,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 27.4% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 273,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,546,000 after acquiring an additional 58,873 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total transaction of $5,083,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,450,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on AGO shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group lifted their price target on Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $77.10 on Thursday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $4.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.22 and a beta of 1.12. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $49.84 and a twelve month high of $96.60. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.71.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $4.57. The firm had revenue of $233.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.15 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.