Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. Makes New $30,000 Investment in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $30,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the first quarter worth approximately $293,632,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,138,398 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $99,156,000 after acquiring an additional 3,588 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,012,552 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,206,000 after acquiring an additional 109,282 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,000,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $88,167,000 after acquiring an additional 10,567 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 581,921 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,267,000 after acquiring an additional 48,631 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $98.50.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total transaction of $2,095,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,287,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $107,956,525.49. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 6,258 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.90, for a total value of $105,760.20. Following the sale, the insider owned 5,282,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,282,598.60. The trade was a 0.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 79,089 shares of company stock worth $5,599,792. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $82.18 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $82.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $83.96. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a one year low of $74.09 and a one year high of $96.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.08 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its 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). Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 44.53% and a return on equity of 7.18%. The firm had revenue of $281.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $203.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.44 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast 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 Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. 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 presently 15.03%.

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.