Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Purchased by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 80.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 9,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,447 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $801,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. LRI Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 292,867 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,595,000 after acquiring an additional 9,971 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 5.1% in the second quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 44,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,457,000 after purchasing an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.0% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $962,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 2,917 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $225,000 after buying an additional 157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $466,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were 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 owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. This represents a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $85.77 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $88.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $81.98. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $71.88 and a 12 month high of $96.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The company had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. Assured Guaranty’s quarterly revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on AGO. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.