Arizona State Retirement System Reduces Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Arizona State Retirement System reduced its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 4.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 642 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $1,222,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Ballentine Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at about $284,000. Allworth Financial LP increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 27.6% in the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 717 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $62,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.2% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $513,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 7.9% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 79,865 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,036,000 after acquiring an additional 5,826 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the first quarter worth $624,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 10,438 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.13, for a total transaction of $899,024.94. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,337,635 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $115,210,502.55. The trade was a 0.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Laura Bieling sold 2,649 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.76, for a total value of $232,476.24. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 13,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,181,425.12. This trade represents a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 85,004 shares of company stock worth $7,324,274. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 0.2%

AGO opened at $83.49 on Friday. 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 $4.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.97 and a beta of 0.82. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $72.57 and a 52 week high of $96.50. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $85.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $86.98.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $257.96 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 45.58%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.96 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 1.63%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 16.25%.

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.