Savant Capital LLC Acquires New Stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Savant Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,839 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $247,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AGO. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the first quarter valued at approximately $104,000. State of Wyoming increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 583.3% during the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,517 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $134,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 28.2% during the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $172,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Financial LLC bought a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth approximately $203,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In other news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 1,882 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.64, for a total transaction of $31,316.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 5,281,112 shares in the company, valued at $87,877,703.68. The trade was a 0.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $2,095,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,287,803 shares in the company, valued at approximately $107,956,525.49. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,929 shares of company stock valued at $2,386,674. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Assured Guaranty from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $101.00.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 1.0%

NYSE:AGO opened at $88.03 on Thursday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $74.09 and a 12 month high of $96.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $83.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $83.94.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $1.03. The company had revenue of $206.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $196.76 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 44.53% and a return on equity of 7.18%. The business’s revenue was down 23.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.42 EPS. Analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 19th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 16.87%.

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.