Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Given a $92.00 Price Target by UBS Group Analysts

UBS Group set a $92.00 target price on Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) in a report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $82.47 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $84.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $86.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a market cap of $3.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.11 and a beta of 0.88. Assured Guaranty has a 52-week low of $74.09 and a 52-week high of $96.50.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.57 by ($0.56). The company had revenue of $281.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $203.91 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 44.53% and a return on equity of 7.18%. The firm’s revenue was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be given a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 15.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total value of $3,260,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 291,728 shares in the company, valued at $23,778,749.28. The trade was a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 10,438 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.13, for a total value of $899,024.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,337,635 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $115,210,502.55. This trade represents a 0.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 122,355 shares of company stock valued at $10,352,198 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.2% in the first quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,238 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 1.9% during the second quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 7,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $629,000 after buying an additional 134 shares during the last quarter. MAI Capital Management boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 17.8% during the second quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 2.7% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 5,742 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $500,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assured Guaranty Company 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.