Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Hits New 52-Week Low – What’s Next?

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The company traded as low as $67.92 and last traded at $67.9680, with a volume of 78716 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $68.97.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Roth Capital upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $80.00 to $85.00 in a research report on Friday, September 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. UBS Group set a $91.00 target price on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.00.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.06 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $76.04 and a 200 day moving average of $78.64.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 37.34% and a return on equity of 7.11%. The company had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter. On average, analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were paid a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assured Guaranty news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured bought 209,388 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $24.83 per share, for a total transaction of $5,199,104.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,212,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,096,591.98. The trade was a 20.88% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 8.3% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 13,577 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,088,000 after buying an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 14.1% in the 2nd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 15,728 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,261,000 after acquiring an additional 1,949 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 568.4% during the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 36,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,961,000 after acquiring an additional 31,416 shares during the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 856.5% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 75,842 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,079,000 after acquiring an additional 67,913 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 37.8% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 77,873 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,242,000 after purchasing an additional 21,363 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

About Assured Guaranty

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) is a Bermuda-based financial services company that provides financial guarantees and related credit enhancement products. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company helps support the repayment of debt issued by public-sector entities, infrastructure projects and other borrowers.

The company’s principal business is financial guaranty insurance, which generally protects investors against scheduled principal and interest payment defaults on insured obligations.