Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Boosts Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 5.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,647 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 233 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $370,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its position in Assured Guaranty by 42.7% in the first quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 24,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 7,222 shares during the period. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $861,000. TCW Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,389,000. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 293.6% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 126,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,773,000 after acquiring an additional 94,486 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 63.1% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 52,674 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,064,000 after acquiring an additional 20,380 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on AGO shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,423,321.19. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,593.05. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of AGO opened at $91.55 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $83.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $79.88. The stock has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.11 and a beta of 1.10. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $65.39 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 posted its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. The firm had revenue of $269.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. Assured Guaranty’s revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.63%.

About Assured Guaranty

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.