Lorin Radtke Sells 1,047 Shares of Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Stock

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the director owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $691,696.24. This trade represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Lorin Radtke also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, March 4th, Lorin Radtke sold 1,219 shares of Assured Guaranty stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.14, for a total value of $106,223.66.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.0%

NYSE:AGO opened at $74.04 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $80.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.90. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $73.27 and a fifty-two week high of $92.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a PE ratio of 8.50 and a beta of 0.76.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 6.98% and a net margin of 40.45%.The business had revenue of $261.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $208.63 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.18 EPS. Assured Guaranty’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.45%.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,885,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $169,483,000 after acquiring an additional 42,311 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $131,589,000 after purchasing an additional 131,195 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 11.7% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $113,480,000 after purchasing an additional 132,351 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,145,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,929,000 after purchasing an additional 92,148 shares during the period. Finally, Royce & Associates LP lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,035,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $87,683,000 after purchasing an additional 69,020 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their target price on Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Roth Mkm lowered Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. UBS Group raised Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Assured Guaranty currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.33.

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.