Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Acquires New Stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 20,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,595,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. LRI Investments LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.5% during the 2nd 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 period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in 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 worth $3,457,000 after purchasing an additional 2,169 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.0% during 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 during the period. Sage Rhino Capital LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sage Rhino Capital LLC now owns 2,917 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $225,000 after purchasing an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 6,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $466,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 5.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on AGO shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of AGO stock opened at $85.77 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $4.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 1.11. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $88.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $82.01. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $71.88 and a 12-month high of $96.60. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The firm had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $202.57 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.42 EPS. Assured Guaranty’s quarterly revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.63%.

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.