Public Sector Pension Investment Board Sells 8,900 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board decreased its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 7.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 104,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,900 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board owned about 0.20% of Assured Guaranty worth $8,341,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Gladius Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 66.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 183.8% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 596 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 155.8% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 388 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. UBS Group boosted their target price on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.1 %

AGO opened at $93.28 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $85.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $80.73. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $67.25 and a twelve month high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $4.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.25 and a beta of 1.10.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The company had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.42 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.33%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.63%.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $286,948.27. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty 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.