Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Price Target Raised to $105.00

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) had its target price raised by stock analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $92.00 to $105.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ target price would indicate a potential upside of 15.36% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on AGO. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of AGO opened at $91.02 on Monday. Assured Guaranty has a twelve month low of $65.39 and a twelve month high of $96.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.07 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $83.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.76.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The business had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assured Guaranty news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,423,321.19. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 39.0% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $411,000 after acquiring an additional 1,320 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 261.3% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 40,265 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,513,000 after buying an additional 29,121 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth approximately $218,000. Seven Eight Capital LP acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the first quarter valued at $452,000. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty during the first quarter valued at approximately $861,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

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.