Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Short Interest Update

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 935,600 shares, a growth of 14.1% from the September 30th total of 820,200 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 357,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Assured Guaranty from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research 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 report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th.

Insider Activity

In other Assured Guaranty news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of Assured Guaranty 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 sale, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,593.05. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were 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 represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,593.05. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Assured Guaranty in the first quarter worth $35,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at about $46,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 183.8% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 596 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 155.8% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 637 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 388 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 55.7% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,054 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of AGO traded down $0.67 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $85.02. 48,917 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 382,989. The company has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.96 and a beta of 1.11. 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 has a 12-month low of $61.83 and a 12-month high of $96.60. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $81.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $78.99.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.39 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $202.00 million during 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 period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty will post 6.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.46%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.08%.

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.