Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Short Interest Up 5.9% in March

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 978,900 shares, a growth of 5.9% from the March 15th total of 924,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 369,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $92.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 1.7 %

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $77.10 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.28 billion, a PE ratio of 6.22 and a beta of 1.12. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $86.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $75.71. Assured Guaranty has a 12 month low of $49.84 and a 12 month high of $96.60.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $4.57. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The company had revenue of $233.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $196.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 10.00%.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total transaction of $5,083,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,450,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 226,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,935,000 after purchasing an additional 21,025 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,882,000 after acquiring an additional 67,613 shares during the last quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. now owns 161,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,784,000 after purchasing an additional 12,621 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $174,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 27.4% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 273,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,546,000 after purchasing an additional 58,873 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

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.