Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) shares saw unusually-high trading volume on Friday . Approximately 199,546 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 49% from the previous session’s volume of 392,370 shares.The stock last traded at $77.96 and had previously closed at $78.53.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $87.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 31st. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 1.8 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $77.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $80.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.96 and a beta of 1.10.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.55. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 57.45% and a return on equity of 12.48%. The company had revenue of $245.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $194.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.58%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, CAO Laura Bieling sold 3,901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.93, for a total transaction of $311,806.93. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 16,036 shares in the company, valued at $1,281,757.48. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Assured Guaranty news, CAO Laura Bieling sold 3,901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.93, for a total value of $311,806.93. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 16,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,281,757.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Robert Bailenson sold 30,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.94, for a total transaction of $2,398,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 304,835 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,368,509.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AGO. HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the third quarter valued at approximately $327,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty during the third quarter worth approximately $174,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 10.6% during the third quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,828 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $776,000 after purchasing an additional 1,233 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 72.8% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 59,834 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,621,000 after purchasing an additional 25,204 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 63.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 406,987 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,631,000 after purchasing an additional 158,638 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

About Assured Guaranty

Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments.