Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO Stock Position Lowered by Kahn Brothers Group Inc.

Kahn Brothers Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 94.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,590 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 41,396 shares during the period. Kahn Brothers Group Inc.’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $219,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGO. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 58.3% in the second quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,791,780 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $151,549,000 after buying an additional 660,009 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 8.8% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,145,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $96,929,000 after buying an additional 92,148 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,035,827 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $87,683,000 after acquiring an additional 69,020 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth about $45,606,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 60.7% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 481,707 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,957,000 after acquiring an additional 182,004 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 1.4%

NYSE:AGO opened at $87.45 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.54 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $87.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $85.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.76. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $74.09 and a 52 week high of $92.39.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The financial services provider reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.78. The firm had revenue of $277.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $205.83 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 45.31% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The company’s revenue was up 77.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.27 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 20th. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th will be paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 6th. This is a boost from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.28%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AGO. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday, December 29th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $105.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, November 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.00.

Insider Transactions at Assured Guaranty

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 4,562 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.31, for a total transaction of $65,282.22. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 5,269,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $75,409,263.90. This represents a 0.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 10,701 shares of company stock valued at $154,990 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd is a Bermuda-domiciled provider of financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance products serving public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. The company’s primary business activity is credit enhancement, whereby it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on debt obligations issued by municipal and infrastructure entities. By combining rigorous risk assessment with active portfolio management, Assured Guaranty helps issuers access capital at more attractive rates while protecting investors against credit events.

In its public finance segment, the company underwrites municipal bond insurance for state and local governments, public-private partnerships and essential infrastructure projects.