Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Purchased by Exchange Traded Concepts LLC

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 35,824 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,620 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC owned about 0.07% of Assured Guaranty worth $3,225,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,005,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $90,531,000 after acquiring an additional 28,026 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP grew its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 13.2% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 981,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $78,020,000 after purchasing an additional 114,308 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 926,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $73,670,000 after purchasing an additional 2,953 shares during the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth about $53,026,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 82.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 662,354 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $51,101,000 after buying an additional 299,658 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of AGO opened at $92.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.69 billion, a PE ratio of 7.17 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $90.43 and its 200-day simple moving average is $84.38. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $72.57 and a 1 year high of $96.60.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 EPS 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 company had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.