Bank of Nova Scotia Acquires New Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Bank of Nova Scotia purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 59,909 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,881,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,885,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $169,483,000 after acquiring an additional 42,311 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $131,589,000 after acquiring an additional 131,195 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $113,480,000 after purchasing an additional 132,351 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,538,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 25.0% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 540,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $45,779,000 after purchasing an additional 108,280 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on AGO. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Roth Capital downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Assured Guaranty from $103.00 to $101.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.67.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.3%

AGO stock opened at $85.14 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a PE ratio of 9.77 and a beta of 0.75. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $82.17. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $72.76 and a 1-year high of $92.39.

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

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total transaction of $77,813.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,307 shares in the company, valued at approximately $691,696.24. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 242,718 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the purchase, the insider directly 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 SEC filing for this purchase provides additional information. Company insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

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.