JPMorgan Chase & Co. Decreases Stock Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 43.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 96,671 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 73,571 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 0.21% of Assured Guaranty worth $8,183,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 58.3% during the second quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,791,780 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $151,549,000 after purchasing an additional 660,009 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,333,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $112,840,000 after purchasing an additional 144,841 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,145,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,929,000 after buying an additional 92,148 shares in the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,035,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $87,683,000 after buying an additional 69,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 25.0% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 540,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,779,000 after buying an additional 108,280 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

NYSE:AGO opened at $79.28 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.74 and a beta of 0.90. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $74.09 and a twelve month high of $92.39. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $84.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 26th. The financial services provider reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.78. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 45.31% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The company had revenue of $277.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $205.83 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.27 EPS. Assured Guaranty’s revenue was up 77.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This is a boost from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 6th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 14.84%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $98.50.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 29,998 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total transaction of $2,442,137.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,264,295 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,926,255.95. The trade was a 2.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,219 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.14, for a total value of $106,223.66. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 8,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $723,000.58. The trade was a 12.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 61,920 shares of company stock valued at $4,324,713. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.