Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Sold by Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd decreased its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 69.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,766 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 31,698 shares during the quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $1,122,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AGO. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 633.9% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at $45,000. Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth $68,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of 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. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In related news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 242,718 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on 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 purchase, 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 position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Robert Bailenson sold 50,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.62, for a total transaction of $3,931,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 256,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,146,453.62. This represents a 16.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on AGO. Roth Capital downgraded 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 note on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. 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 report on Monday, May 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Assured Guaranty has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $92.33.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.5%

AGO traded down $0.38 on Friday, reaching $82.12. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 265,259 shares, compared to its average volume of 373,378. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $72.76 and a 1 year high of $92.39. The business’s 50 day moving average is $77.92 and its 200 day moving average is $82.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.43 and a beta of 0.75.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $208.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.18 EPS. Assured Guaranty’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.45%.

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.