Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Boosts Stock Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 6.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 33,810 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,117 shares during the quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $3,044,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. River Road Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 67.4% during the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,116,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $100,463,000 after acquiring an additional 449,310 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,005,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $90,531,000 after purchasing an additional 28,026 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 990,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,127,000 after purchasing an additional 9,062 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 926,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $73,670,000 after purchasing an additional 2,953 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 903,270 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,303,000 after buying an additional 97,091 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $89.70 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.97 and a beta of 0.82. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $72.57 and a twelve month high of $96.50. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $85.22 and a two-hundred day moving average of $88.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by ($0.07). The business had revenue of $199.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.56 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. On average, research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.52%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 16th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.94%.

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.