Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $2.04 Million Investment in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 27,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,035,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 226,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,935,000 after buying an additional 21,025 shares during the period. Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.2% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $66,882,000 after buying an additional 67,613 shares during the period. Cambria Investment Management L.P. boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.5% during the third quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. now owns 161,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,784,000 after buying an additional 12,621 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the third quarter worth about $174,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 27.4% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 273,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,546,000 after buying an additional 58,873 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total value of $5,083,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,450,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “market perform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on 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 Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $77.10 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $86.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.71. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $49.84 and a 52 week high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current 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.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $4.57. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.82% and a net margin of 53.82%. The firm had revenue of $233.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $196.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.22 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.45%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.00%.

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.