17,465 Shares in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Bought by Jupiter Topco LLC

Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 17,465 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,401,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $542,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 6.3% during the 3rd quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC now owns 3,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 199 shares during the period. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 12.9% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,764 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after buying an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,853 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $75.56 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $80.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $80.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.32 billion, a PE ratio of 10.07 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.64. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $72.76 and a 12 month high of $92.39.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 37.34% and a return on equity of 7.11%. The firm had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter. As a group, research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 20th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.27%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AGO. Roth Capital downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, May 8th. UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings lowered Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.33.

Insider Activity

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured bought 209,388 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $24.83 per share, for a total transaction of $5,199,104.04. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider owned 1,212,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,096,591.98. This represents a 20.88% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

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.