Heck Capital Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 1,083 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $97,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AGO. Creative Planning raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $886,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 11,426 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $909,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 11,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $911,000 after buying an additional 180 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 66.6% in the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 493 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.3% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,647 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $370,000 after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” 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 note on Wednesday, November 13th.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $94.66 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.82 billion, a PE ratio of 7.36 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $90.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.87. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $72.57 and a twelve month high of $96.60.

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

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 9.63%.

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.