Short Interest in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Expands By 19.4%

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 902,300 shares, a growth of 19.4% from the August 15th total of 755,700 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 398,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days. Approximately 1.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AGO. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 14.5% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,164 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.4% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,005 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $849,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.7% in the second quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 2,917 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $225,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.7% in the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $466,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 31,310 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,732,000 after buying an additional 302 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on AGO shares. StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 9th.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:AGO traded up $0.16 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $80.88. 367,779 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 390,931. The stock has a market cap of $4.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.26 and a beta of 1.11. Assured Guaranty has a fifty-two week low of $58.27 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $80.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 61.17% and a return on equity of 13.19%. The business had revenue of $202.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $193.05 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 43.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty will post 6.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.53%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 9.58%.

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.