Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Stock Holdings Reduced by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp lowered its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 7.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,398 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,602 shares during the quarter. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $1,701,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 214.0% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 24,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,980,000 after purchasing an additional 16,956 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,595,000. XTX Topco Ltd raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 11,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $911,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. iSAM Funds UK Ltd raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 35.4% in the 3rd quarter. iSAM Funds UK Ltd now owns 7,161 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $569,000 after acquiring an additional 1,874 shares during the period. Finally, Weiss Asset Management LP acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth $748,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of AGO opened at $90.05 on Friday. 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 company has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $81.77. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $71.11 and a 52 week high of $96.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.11.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The firm had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.42 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.63%.

About Assured Guaranty

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.