Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $91.6667.

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $103.00 to $101.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Roth Capital downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $84.65 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.72 and a beta of 0.75. Assured Guaranty has a 52-week low of $72.76 and a 52-week high of $92.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $1.00. The firm had revenue of $261.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.63 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 40.45% and a return on equity of 6.98%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.18 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 7.08 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is 17.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total transaction of $77,813.04. Following the sale, the director directly owned 9,307 shares in the company, valued at $691,696.24. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 242,718 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $24.72 per share, for a total transaction of $5,999,988.96. Following the completion of 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 position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 5.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 633.9% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 393 shares during the period. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. bought a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Quarry LP bought a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 309.2% during the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter valued at $68,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Company 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.