Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New Investment in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 27,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,035,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,158,570 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $583,035,000 after purchasing an additional 108,726 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 5.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,928,269 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $504,714,000 after purchasing an additional 410,594 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $66,882,000 after purchasing an additional 67,613 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 826,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $46,119,000 after purchasing an additional 13,713 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 18.4% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 660,383 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $39,966,000 after buying an additional 102,707 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $77.10 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $86.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.71. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $49.84 and a 12 month high of $96.60. The company has a market cap of $4.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.22 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.82% and a net margin of 53.82%. The business had revenue of $233.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.22 earnings per share. Assured Guaranty’s revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.00%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $92.00 target price (up previously from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group boosted their target price 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 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.