Front Row Advisors LLC Sells 225 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Front Row Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 4.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,551 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 225 shares during the quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $351,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AGO. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new position in Assured Guaranty during the second quarter worth $46,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 55.7% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 24.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Finally, CWM LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 535.9% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,965 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after purchasing an additional 1,656 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $79.51 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $4.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.14 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $58.27 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.65 and its 200 day simple moving average is $79.62.

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

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 9.58%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.