Captrust Financial Advisors Takes $281,000 Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Captrust Financial Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 3,529 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $281,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGO. CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 535.9% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,965 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $152,000 after buying an additional 1,656 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,389,000. LRI Investments LLC grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.5% in the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 292,867 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $22,595,000 after purchasing an additional 9,971 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 44,814 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,457,000 after purchasing an additional 2,169 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,466 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $962,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In related news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of Assured Guaranty 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.7 %

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $90.05 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $71.11 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The company has a market cap of $4.58 billion, a PE ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.11. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $87.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $81.77.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $202.57 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. Assured Guaranty’s quarterly revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.63%.

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.