New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 8,873 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 18.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 40,431 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,873 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $3,025,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AGO. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 63.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 406,987 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,631,000 after purchasing an additional 158,638 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $66,882,000 after buying an additional 67,613 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 273,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,546,000 after acquiring an additional 58,873 shares in the last quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,039,000. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,035,000. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 1.4 %

AGO stock opened at $78.98 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.37 and a beta of 1.14. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $77.37. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $49.84 and a 12 month high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $233.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.15 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.00%.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,450,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AGO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $92.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group increased their price target on Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the company 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.