Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Upgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Friday morning.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Assured Guaranty from a market perform rating to an outperform rating and upped their price objective for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Roth Mkm restated a buy rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 2.1 %

AGO stock opened at $76.30 on Friday. Assured Guaranty has a 1-year low of $58.27 and a 1-year high of $96.60. The firm has a market cap of $4.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 1.11. The business’s 50 day moving average is $78.68 and its 200-day moving average is $80.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.05. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 13.19% and a net margin of 61.17%. The company had revenue of $202.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.05 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 6.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AGO. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at $46,000. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at $53,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 55.7% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 24.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,017 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

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.