Sanctuary Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 10,632 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $852,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 633.9% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 309.2% during the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AGO. Weiss Ratings downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Roth Capital 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. UBS Group upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 209,388 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $24.83 per share, for a total transaction of $5,199,104.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,212,106 shares in the company, valued at $30,096,591.98. This represents a 20.88% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $75.55 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $80.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $80.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.07 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.64. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $72.76 and a 12 month high of $92.39.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 37.34%.The business had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is 20.27%.

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.