Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) CEO Dominic Frederico Sells 31,000 Shares

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares in the company, valued at $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Dominic Frederico also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, June 20th, Dominic Frederico sold 40,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.12, for a total value of $3,124,800.00.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $77.94 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.24 billion, a PE ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 1.11. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $58.27 and a 52 week high of $96.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $202.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 61.17% and a return on equity of 13.19%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter valued at $41,609,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 82.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 662,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $51,101,000 after purchasing an additional 299,658 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the first quarter worth about $25,554,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 37.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 678,182 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $52,322,000 after buying an additional 184,621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 293.6% during the second 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 subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $87.00 to $92.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th.

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.