Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Short Interest Down 9.1% in January

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) saw a significant drop in short interest in January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 972,100 shares, a drop of 9.1% from the December 31st total of 1,070,000 shares. Approximately 2.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 287,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $94.66 on Monday. Assured Guaranty has a one year low of $72.57 and a one year high of $96.60. The stock has a market cap of $4.82 billion, a PE ratio of 7.36 and a beta of 1.12. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $90.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $84.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91.

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

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.63%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. River Road Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter worth $53,026,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 50.7% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 434,173 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,525,000 after acquiring an additional 146,107 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 112.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 216,912 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,249,000 after purchasing an additional 115,012 shares in the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 981,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $78,020,000 after acquiring an additional 114,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 293.6% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 126,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,773,000 after buying an additional 94,486 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group upped their target price on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.