Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Director Lorin Radtke Sells 1,047 Shares

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total transaction of $77,813.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 9,307 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $691,696.24. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Lorin Radtke also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, March 4th, Lorin Radtke sold 1,219 shares of Assured Guaranty stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.14, for a total transaction of $106,223.66.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $74.15 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $3.28 billion, a PE ratio of 8.51 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $80.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $84.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $73.46 and a 12 month high of $92.39.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50 by $1.00. The firm had revenue of $261.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $208.63 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 40.45% and a return on equity of 6.98%. The firm’s revenue was down 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.18 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.45%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 3,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $309,000 after acquiring an additional 160 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $542,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Prelude Capital Management LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 6.3% in the third quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC now owns 3,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $284,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AGO. Roth Mkm downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, May 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $108.00 to $103.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $92.33.

Assured Guaranty Company 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.