Quantinno Capital Management LP Acquires 11,940 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 61.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,327 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,940 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP owned 0.06% of Assured Guaranty worth $2,491,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CWM LLC increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 535.9% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,965 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $152,000 after purchasing an additional 1,656 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 63.1% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 52,674 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,064,000 after purchasing an additional 20,380 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.8% in the second quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 906,644 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $69,948,000 after purchasing an additional 16,110 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter worth $1,389,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.5% in the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 292,867 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,595,000 after purchasing an additional 9,971 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

AGO opened at $88.34 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.86 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a fifty day moving average of $87.42 and a 200 day moving average of $81.50. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $70.59 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The business had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.42 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is currently 9.63%.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

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.