PEAK6 LLC Takes Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

PEAK6 LLC acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 8,706 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $698,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at approximately $463,926,000. River Road Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 during the period. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in Assured Guaranty by 9.8% during the fourth 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. grew its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,262,698 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $113,480,000 after purchasing an additional 132,351 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter worth approximately $51,538,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.2%

AGO stock opened at $74.31 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.91 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.64. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $72.76 and a 1-year high of $92.39. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $80.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $81.26.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 37.34% and a return on equity of 7.11%. The business had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on AGO. Wall Street Zen upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, August 16th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Roth Capital cut Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, UBS Group raised Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

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.