4,070 Shares in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Acquired by Choreo LLC

Choreo LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 4,070 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $318,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.8% during the second quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 906,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,948,000 after acquiring an additional 16,110 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,609,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 407,268 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,476,000 after buying an additional 4,699 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the first quarter worth approximately $25,554,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 285,191 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,002,000 after buying an additional 6,316 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of AGO stock opened at $80.88 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $78.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $80.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.25 and a beta of 1.11. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $58.27 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 61.17% and a return on equity of 13.19%. The company had revenue of $202.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $193.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.53%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.58%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AGO shares. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 9th.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.12, for a total transaction of $3,124,800.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,410,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,213,570.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty 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.