Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Has $469,000 Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado trimmed its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 15.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,082 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,075 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $469,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Intech Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $744,000. Inspire Investing LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the second quarter worth $769,000. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at $870,000. Seven Eight Capital LP increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 47.1% in the 2nd quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 7,629 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $589,000 after purchasing an additional 2,443 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 42.6% in the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 69,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,382,000 after buying an additional 20,862 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $80.20 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $79.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $58.27 and a 1 year high of $96.60. The firm has a market cap of $4.37 billion, a PE ratio of 6.19 and a beta of 1.11.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $202.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 61.17% and a return on equity of 13.19%. Assured Guaranty’s revenue was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 9.58%.

About Assured Guaranty

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.