Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Price Target Lowered to $101.00 at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) had its price target dropped by research analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $103.00 to $101.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods’ price objective points to a potential upside of 19.79% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. UBS Group raised 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. Roth Capital downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $91.67.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 2.2%

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $84.31 on Friday. Assured Guaranty has a 1-year low of $72.76 and a 1-year high of $92.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.63 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of 9.68 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $78.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $82.42.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.62, for a total value of $3,931,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 256,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,146,453.62. This represents a 16.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total value of $77,813.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 9,307 shares in the company, valued at $691,696.24. This trade represents a 10.11% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 5.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AGO. IMC Chicago LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter worth $1,446,000. M&T Bank Corp increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 156.4% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 49,522 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,743,000 after acquiring an additional 30,208 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter worth about $51,538,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 138.3% during the fourth quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al now owns 31,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,826,000 after purchasing an additional 18,250 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,480,000 after purchasing an additional 132,351 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.