Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Bought by Natixis

Natixis raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 109.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 56,735 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 29,702 shares during the quarter. Natixis owned approximately 0.11% of Assured Guaranty worth $5,107,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AGO. River Road Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 67.4% during the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,116,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $100,463,000 after purchasing an additional 449,310 shares during the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,005,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,531,000 after buying an additional 28,026 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 990,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,127,000 after buying an additional 9,062 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 926,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $73,670,000 after buying an additional 2,953 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 903,270 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $81,303,000 after acquiring an additional 97,091 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of AGO opened at $83.37 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $72.57 and a 1-year high of $96.50. The stock has a market cap of $4.16 billion, a PE ratio of 6.48 and a beta of 0.84. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $86.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $88.08.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $199.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.56 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.94%.

Assured Guaranty 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.