Insider Selling: Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) COO Sells 40,000 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Assured Guaranty Ltd. COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares for approximately $3.26 million, resulting in a 12.06% decrease in his holdings.
• The company reported a Q2 EPS of $1.01, falling short of analyst expectations, while its revenue increased by 39.1% year-over-year.
• Assured Guaranty announced a quarterly dividend of $0.34 per share, with a yield of 1.7%, to be paid on September 3rd.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total value of $3,260,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 291,728 shares in the company, valued at $23,778,749.28. The trade was a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

AGO traded down $1.91 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $80.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 326,603 shares, compared to its average volume of 334,356. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $74.09 and a twelve month high of $96.50. The stock has a market cap of $3.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.91 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $85.99. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.57 by ($0.56). Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 44.53%. The firm had revenue of $281.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $203.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Assured Guaranty's revenue for the quarter was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. Assured Guaranty's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.03%.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 180,065 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $15,684,000 after buying an additional 3,711 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 94.6% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 16,952 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,477,000 after acquiring an additional 8,241 shares during the last quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 12.7% during the second quarter. State of Tennessee Department of Treasury now owns 13,261 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,155,000 after acquiring an additional 1,499 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 30.6% during the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 16,219 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,413,000 after acquiring an additional 3,798 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oxford Asset Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the second quarter worth $1,147,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group set a $92.00 target price on Assured Guaranty and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen lowered Assured Guaranty from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Assured Guaranty to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th.

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.