Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Sold by Amundi

Amundi lessened its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 7.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,923 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,305 shares during the quarter. Amundi owned about 0.14% of Assured Guaranty worth $5,799,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $513,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,238 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after buying an additional 132 shares during the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 27.6% during the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 717 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,862 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $252,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Freedom Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 6.1% during the 1st quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,781 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $245,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.4%

NYSE:AGO opened at $81.73 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.03 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.72. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $74.09 and a 12-month high of $96.50.

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

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 20th were paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 20th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 15.03%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In related news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of Assured Guaranty 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 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. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on AGO shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Zacks Research upgraded Assured Guaranty to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $98.50.

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.