Magnetar Financial LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Magnetar Financial LLC lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 160.4% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 12,332 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,597 shares during the quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $1,074,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGO. Invst LLC bought a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter worth about $669,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 28.2% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,979 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $172,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the first quarter valued at $5,920,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 28.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,214 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $459,000 after buying an additional 1,140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 19.7% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 24,405 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,150,000 after buying an additional 4,013 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total transaction of $2,095,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,287,803 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $107,956,525.49. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured sold 6,258 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.90, for a total value of $105,760.20. Following the transaction, the insider owned 5,282,994 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $89,282,598.60. The trade was a 0.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 41,929 shares of company stock valued at $2,386,674. 5.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGO has been the subject of several recent research reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research raised Assured Guaranty from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 8th. 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 report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $101.00.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $89.84 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.93 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $83.54 and its 200-day simple moving average is $83.91. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $74.09 and a 52 week high of $96.50.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The financial services provider reported $2.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $1.03. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 44.53%.The company had revenue of $206.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.76 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.42 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 23.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 19th will be given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 19th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.87%.

About Assured Guaranty

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.