Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Sold by First Trust Advisors LP

First Trust Advisors LP cut its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 7.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,356,635 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 107,584 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 3.02% of Assured Guaranty worth $110,539,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AGO. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 3,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $309,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prelude Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 6.3% during the third quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC now owns 3,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $284,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on AGO shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Roth Capital lowered shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $103.00 to $101.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.62, for a total value of $3,931,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 256,251 shares in the company, valued at $20,146,453.62. This represents a 16.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total transaction of $77,813.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $691,696.24. This trade represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE AGO opened at $84.41 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $78.84 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $82.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $72.76 and a twelve month high of $92.39. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.69 and a beta of 0.75.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.63 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.18 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

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

About Assured Guaranty

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.