Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 3.1% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 780,573 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 25,376 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $63,602,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. IMC Chicago LLC acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter valued at $1,446,000. M&T Bank Corp raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 156.4% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 49,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,743,000 after acquiring an additional 30,208 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter valued at $51,538,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al lifted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 138.3% in the fourth quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 31,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,826,000 after acquiring an additional 18,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 132,351 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday. UBS Group upgraded shares of 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Roth Capital downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Assured Guaranty presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $92.33.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 242,718 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 30th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $24.72 per share, for a total transaction of $5,999,988.96. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 1,002,718 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,787,188.96. The trade was a 31.94% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total transaction of $77,813.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,307 shares in the company, valued at $691,696.24. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Corporate insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $84.31 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.68 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $72.76 and a 52 week high of $92.39. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.42.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $208.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.18 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid 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 1.8%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.45%.

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.