Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Bought by Creative Planning

Creative Planning raised its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 11,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $886,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the second quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 55.7% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 14.5% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $90,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the second quarter valued at approximately $151,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,593.05. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 1.1 %

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $82.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market cap of $4.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.71 and a beta of 1.11. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $63.66 and a 1 year high of $96.60. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $81.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $79.02.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $202.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 61.17% and a return on equity of 13.19%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.08%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on AGO. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th.

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.