Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $92.3333.

AGO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Weiss Ratings cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. 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 report on Monday, May 18th. Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Roth Mkm cut 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.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

NYSE AGO opened at $79.41 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.12 and a beta of 0.76. Assured Guaranty has a twelve month low of $72.76 and a twelve month high of $92.39. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average of $78.08 and a 200 day moving average of $83.23.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $261.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $208.63 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 40.45%.Assured Guaranty’s quarterly revenue was down 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.18 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 7.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders 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 dividend yield of 1.9%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 17.45%.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured bought 242,718 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 30th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $24.72 per share, with a total value of $5,999,988.96. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 1,002,718 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,787,188.96. The trade was a 31.94% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Robert Bailenson sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.62, for a total value 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 trade represents a 16.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 174,797 shares of company stock worth $13,936,038 over the last three months. 5.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 61.6% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 59,010 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,198,000 after acquiring an additional 22,486 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 7.3% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 238,638 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $21,024,000 after purchasing an additional 16,235 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 8.9% in the second quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 3,600 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 99.5% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 868 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 433 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at $553,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.