Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Sold by Point72 Hong Kong Ltd

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd decreased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 97.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,223 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 80,662 shares during the quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $172,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth about $41,609,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 153,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $11,471,000 after purchasing an additional 2,465 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 36.4% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 73,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,487,000 after purchasing an additional 19,581 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 44,546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,333,000 after purchasing an additional 4,778 shares during the period. Finally, TFO Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 63,130.0% during the 4th quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 6,323 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $473,000 after purchasing an additional 6,313 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 1.0 %

AGO opened at $80.20 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a one year low of $58.27 and a one year high of $96.60. The company has a market cap of $4.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.19 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.69.

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

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.58%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $87.00 to $92.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th.

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.