Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Decreases Stock Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 23,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,100 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $1,901,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth $35,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty during the second quarter valued at $46,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 155.8% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,000 after buying an additional 388 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 55.7% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 377 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 14.5% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 target price on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $85.66 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $80.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $78.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion, a PE ratio of 6.61 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $61.83 and a 12-month high of $96.60.

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

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.45%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.58%.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the firm’s 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 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 available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of Assured Guaranty 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 transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,593.05. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Assured Guaranty

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.