Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Stock Holdings Reduced by Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund reduced its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 73.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 54,000 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $1,615,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AGO. M&T Bank Corp raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 156.4% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 49,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,743,000 after acquiring an additional 30,208 shares in the last quarter. IMC Chicago LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,446,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth $51,538,000. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 11.7% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,480,000 after purchasing an additional 132,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 138.3% during the 4th quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 31,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 18,250 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured acquired 209,388 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $24.83 per share, with a total value of $5,199,104.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,212,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,096,591.98. This trade represents a 20.88% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total value of $77,813.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $691,696.24. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on AGO shares. UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on Assured Guaranty from $103.00 to $101.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 17th. Roth Capital cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Assured Guaranty has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $91.67.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $82.58 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $79.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.48 and a beta of 0.75. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $72.76 and a 1-year high of $92.39.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $1.00. The business had revenue of $261.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $208.63 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 40.45% and a return on equity of 6.98%. Assured Guaranty’s revenue was down 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.18 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd is a Bermuda-domiciled provider of financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance products serving public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. The company’s primary business activity is credit enhancement, whereby it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on debt obligations issued by municipal and infrastructure entities. By combining rigorous risk assessment with active portfolio management, Assured Guaranty helps issuers access capital at more attractive rates while protecting investors against credit events.

In its public finance segment, the company underwrites municipal bond insurance for state and local governments, public-private partnerships and essential infrastructure projects.