Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Invests $669,000 in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 8,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $669,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,885,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $169,483,000 after purchasing an additional 42,311 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 9.8% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,464,219 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $131,589,000 after buying an additional 131,195 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 11.7% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,480,000 after buying an additional 132,351 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth $51,538,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 25.0% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 540,800 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $45,779,000 after buying an additional 108,280 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 13th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Roth Capital lowered shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.8%

Shares of AGO stock opened at $76.14 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $80.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $81.54. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $72.76 and a twelve month high of $92.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.15 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 37.34%.The company had revenue of $195.00 million for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In related news, Director Lorin Radtke sold 1,047 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.32, for a total value of $77,813.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 9,307 shares in the company, valued at $691,696.24. This represents a 10.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 209,388 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $24.83 per share, with a total value of $5,199,104.04. Following the purchase, the insider owned 1,212,106 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,096,591.98. This trade represents a 20.88% increase in their position. Additional details regarding this purchase are available in the official SEC disclosure. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Assured Guaranty

Assured Guaranty Ltd is a Bermuda-domiciled provider of financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance products serving public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. The company’s primary business activity is credit enhancement, whereby it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on debt obligations issued by municipal and infrastructure entities. By combining rigorous risk assessment with active portfolio management, Assured Guaranty helps issuers access capital at more attractive rates while protecting investors against credit events.

In its public finance segment, the company underwrites municipal bond insurance for state and local governments, public-private partnerships and essential infrastructure projects.