Capital Fund Management S.A. Takes Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Capital Fund Management S.A. bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 41,155 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,585,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 28.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after acquiring an additional 1,140 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 8.6% during the first quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 3,006 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $265,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 2.1% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 9,773 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $861,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 25.2% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 9,910 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $873,000 after buying an additional 1,997 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the first quarter valued at approximately $104,000. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 6,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $89,282,598.60. This trade represents a 0.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $2,095,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,287,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $107,956,525.49. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 41,929 shares of company stock valued at $2,386,674. 5.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

AGO stock opened at $89.26 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $84.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.05. The firm has a market cap of $4.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $74.09 and a 12 month high of $96.50.

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

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is 16.87%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Assured Guaranty 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.