Eagle Asset Management Inc. Sells 37,378 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 21.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 133,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 37,378 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $11,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AGO. TCW Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,389,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 293.6% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 126,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,773,000 after purchasing an additional 94,486 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 63.1% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 52,674 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,064,000 after purchasing an additional 20,380 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter worth $870,000. Finally, Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth $1,691,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on AGO. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped 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 Up 1.4 %

AGO stock opened at $93.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $84.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $80.24. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $67.25 and a 12 month high of $96.60. The company has a market capitalization of $4.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.23 and a beta of 1.10.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.42 earnings per share. Assured Guaranty’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.63%.

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.