Boston Partners Boosts Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 46.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 806,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 254,063 shares during the period. Boston Partners’ holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $72,904,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 67.4% during the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,116,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $100,463,000 after buying an additional 449,310 shares during the period. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,005,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,531,000 after buying an additional 28,026 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 990,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $89,127,000 after buying an additional 9,062 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 0.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 926,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $73,670,000 after buying an additional 2,953 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 719,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,740,000 after buying an additional 66,487 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.8 %

AGO opened at $86.66 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $4.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.73 and a beta of 1.11. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $72.57 and a 52 week high of $96.50. The business’s 50 day moving average is $90.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $87.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

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

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is presently 19.94%.

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.