Virtu Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 6,843 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $615,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AGO. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 194,128 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,446,000 after buying an additional 2,604 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 377.5% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 92,764 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $8,337,000 after acquiring an additional 73,339 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter valued at $237,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter valued at $198,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 577.1% during the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 35,271 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,170,000 after purchasing an additional 30,062 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of AGO opened at $76.70 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $78.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $83.49. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $72.76 and a 12 month high of $92.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.81 and a beta of 0.76.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 40.45%.The company had revenue of $261.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $208.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 17.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on AGO shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Roth Mkm downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group raised Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $92.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 242,718 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $24.72 per share, for a total transaction of $5,999,988.96. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 1,002,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,787,188.96. This represents a 31.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Robert Bailenson sold 50,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.62, for a total transaction of $3,931,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 256,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,146,453.62. This represents a 16.33% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 174,797 shares of company stock valued at $13,936,038 over the last 90 days. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.