Royce & Associates LP Grows Stock Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Royce & Associates LP lifted its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 981,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 114,308 shares during the quarter. Assured Guaranty makes up 0.7% of Royce & Associates LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $78,020,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AGO. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 26.5% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 1,558 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $124,000 after purchasing an additional 326 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at $211,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 5.3% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,647 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $370,000 after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 25,512 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,029,000 after purchasing an additional 1,085 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 4,102 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $91.54 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $65.39 and a 12-month high of $96.60. The stock has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.11 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $82.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $79.57.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. The business had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The business’s revenue was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.42 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.63%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,423,321.19. This trade represents a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

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.