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

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $92.3333.

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AGO. UBS Group upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Roth Mkm downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 242,718 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $24.72 per share, with a total value 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 $24,787,188.96. This represents a 31.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 29,998 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.41, for a total value of $2,442,137.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,264,295 shares in the company, valued at $102,926,255.95. This trade represents a 2.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 226,016 shares of company stock valued at $18,105,761 over the last ninety days. 5.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. IMC Chicago LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,446,000. M&T Bank Corp grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 156.4% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 49,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,743,000 after buying an additional 30,208 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.8% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,145,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,929,000 after acquiring an additional 92,148 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 7.5% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 193,640 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,392,000 after acquiring an additional 13,575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 12.2% during the third quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,333,024 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $112,840,000 after acquiring an additional 144,841 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $74.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.51 and a beta of 0.76. Assured Guaranty has a 1 year low of $73.46 and a 1 year high of $92.39. The business has a 50-day moving average of $80.14 and a 200-day moving average of $84.90. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $261.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.18 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 7.08 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

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