Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Buys 161 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 2.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $466,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Assured Guaranty by 14.5% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC grew 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 valued at $225,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,310 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,732,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $962,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 55.7% during the 2nd 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. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction 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. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $81.07 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.26 and a beta of 1.11. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $78.77 and a 200 day moving average of $79.91. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $58.27 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60.

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

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.58%.

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.