573,478 Shares in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Purchased by Norges Bank

Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 573,478 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $51,538,000. Norges Bank owned about 1.24% of Assured Guaranty at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AGO. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 633.9% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP bought a new position in Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 1,080.6% in the third quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 732 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the last quarter. Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth $68,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 99.5% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 868 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised 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. Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their target price on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Roth Mkm cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.33.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of AGO opened at $75.62 on Monday. 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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $84.53. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52-week low of $72.76 and a 52-week high of $92.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a PE ratio of 8.68 and a beta of 0.76.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.50 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 40.45% and a return on equity of 6.98%. The firm had revenue of $261.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $208.63 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.18 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 EPS for the current fiscal 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. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.45%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total value of $77,813.04. Following the sale, the director owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $691,696.24. This trade represents a 10.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 29,998 shares of the business’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 owned 1,264,295 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 224,797 shares of company stock worth $17,999,537 in the last ninety days. 5.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty 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.