Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 943,800 shares, an increase of 5.6% from the November 15th total of 893,700 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 328,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.9 days. Approximately 2.0% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of AGO stock opened at $90.05 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $4.58 billion, a PE ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a 50-day moving average of $87.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $81.81. Assured Guaranty has a 1-year low of $71.11 and a 1-year high of $96.60.

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

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.38%. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is 9.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of Assured Guaranty 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 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 6.5% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 19,179 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,525,000 after buying an additional 1,169 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at about $224,000. TCW Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 6.8% in the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 19,232 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,529,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 214.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 24,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,980,000 after purchasing an additional 16,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at $1,595,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th.

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.