Teacher Retirement System of Texas Buys Shares of 7,085 Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 7,085 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $624,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 10,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $908,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,590 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,133,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 46.3% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 471 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,074 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $367,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 36,455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,281,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 71,917 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.11, for a total value of $6,192,772.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,348,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $116,082,566.03. This trade represents a 5.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Laura Bieling sold 2,649 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.76, for a total value of $232,476.24. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 13,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,181,425.12. This represents a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 85,004 shares of company stock valued at $7,324,274. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $81.99 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $4.02 billion, a PE ratio of 9.80 and a beta of 0.82. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $87.12. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $72.57 and a 52 week high of $96.50.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $345.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $257.96 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 45.58%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.96 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th were given a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.25%.

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.