Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Sold by Exchange Traded Concepts LLC

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 71.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,824 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,795 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $832,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AGO. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 58.3% during the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,791,780 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $151,549,000 after buying an additional 660,009 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,606,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 176.3% in the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 366,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $31,935,000 after acquiring an additional 233,966 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 60.7% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 481,707 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,957,000 after purchasing an additional 182,004 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HRT Financial LP acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the second quarter worth about $7,739,000. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on AGO shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Assured Guaranty currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $101.00.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $90.57 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market cap of $4.18 billion, a PE ratio of 11.24 and a beta of 0.91. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a one year low of $74.09 and a one year high of $96.50. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $87.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.75.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $1.03. The firm had revenue of $207.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.76 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 40.65% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 23.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th were paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 19th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.87%.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 6,258 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.90, for a total transaction of $105,760.20. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,282,994 shares in the company, valued at $89,282,598.60. This represents a 0.12% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 16,929 shares of company stock worth $290,924. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd is a Bermuda-domiciled provider of financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance products serving public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. The company’s primary business activity is credit enhancement, whereby it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on debt obligations issued by municipal and infrastructure entities. By combining rigorous risk assessment with active portfolio management, Assured Guaranty helps issuers access capital at more attractive rates while protecting investors against credit events.

In its public finance segment, the company underwrites municipal bond insurance for state and local governments, public-private partnerships and essential infrastructure projects.