Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 169 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,325 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 169 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $2,122,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 8.2% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $66,882,000 after purchasing an additional 67,613 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth about $41,609,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 407,268 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $30,476,000 after purchasing an additional 4,699 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 27.4% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 273,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,546,000 after purchasing an additional 58,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 252,270 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $18,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,128 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock traded down $0.73 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $77.27. 29,549 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 403,878. The company has a 50 day moving average of $77.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $80.48. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $54.63 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a market cap of $4.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 1.11.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $194.78 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.12 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th were paid a $0.31 dividend. This is an increase from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 14th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $87.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 31st.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In related news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.94, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.94, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Laura Bieling sold 3,901 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 16,036 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,281,757.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 73,901 shares of company stock worth $5,834,807. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

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.