Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Assured Guaranty has been downgraded from a "hold" to a "sell" rating by Wall Street Zen and from "neutral" to "reduce" by UBS Group.
• The company's shares dropped by 2.8%, and its latest earnings report showed an EPS of $1.01, missing estimates by $0.56 despite a 39.1% increase in revenue year-over-year.
• CEO Dominic Frederico and CAO Laura Bieling recently sold significant shares, indicating insider transactions of over $7 million in the past 90 days.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

Separately, UBS Group downgraded Assured Guaranty from a "neutral" rating to a "reduce" rating in a research note on Friday.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.4%

NYSE:AGO traded down $0.34 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $81.67. 57,552 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 329,380. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $84.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.24. Assured Guaranty has a fifty-two week low of $74.09 and a fifty-two week high of $96.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a PE ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 0.88.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts' expectations of $203.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 71,917 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.11, for a total value of $6,192,772.87. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,348,073 shares in the company, valued at $116,082,566.03. The trade was a 5.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of the company'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 sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 291,728 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,778,749.28. This represents a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 122,355 shares of company stock worth $10,352,198. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AGO. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the first quarter worth $1,305,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 79,865 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $7,036,000 after buying an additional 5,826 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 41.7% during the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 70,622 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $6,222,000 after buying an additional 20,779 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter worth $624,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,074 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $367,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company's stock.

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.