Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Acquired by Evergreen Capital Management LLC

Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 14.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,150 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 668 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $397,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,609,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter valued at $25,554,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 37.4% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 678,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $52,322,000 after acquiring an additional 184,621 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1,990.0% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 60,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,308,000 after purchasing an additional 57,928 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the second quarter valued at $3,859,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AGO shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $87.00 to $92.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $80.20 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $58.27 and a twelve month high of $96.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $78.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $79.69. The company has a market capitalization of $4.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.19 and a beta of 1.11.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $202.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 61.17% and a return on equity of 13.19%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.58%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $2,480,310.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.