Assured Guaranty's (AGO) "Buy (B-)" Rating Reaffirmed at Weiss Ratings

Key Points

• Assured Guaranty's stock has had its "Buy (B-)" rating reaffirmed by Weiss Ratings, while other analysts have mixed opinions with one rating it a "strong sell."
• The company missed analysts' earnings estimates in its last quarterly report, reporting $1.01 EPS, significantly lower than the expected $1.57 EPS, but reported a revenue increase of 39.1% year-over-year.
• Insider trading activities showed significant sales, including COO Robert Bailenson selling 40,000 shares, which reflects a decrease in ownership by over 12%.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy (b-)" rating restated by research analysts at Weiss Ratings in a research report issued on Wednesday,Weiss Ratings reports.

AGO has been the subject of a number of other reports. Zacks Research upgraded Assured Guaranty to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Assured Guaranty from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $98.50.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of AGO traded up $0.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $82.90. 82,728 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 329,913. Assured Guaranty has a 52 week low of $74.09 and a 52 week high of $96.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.95 billion, a PE ratio of 9.16 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $82.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $84.23.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $1.57 by ($0.56). Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.18% and a net margin of 44.53%.The company had revenue of $281.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $203.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.44 earnings per share. Assured Guaranty's revenue was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total transaction of $3,260,400.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 291,728 shares in the company, valued at approximately $23,778,749.28. This trade represents a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 25,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.83, for a total value of $2,095,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,287,803 shares in the company, valued at $107,956,525.49. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter valued at $293,632,000. River Road Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 58.3% during the 2nd quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,791,780 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $151,549,000 after purchasing an additional 660,009 shares during the period. Reinhart Partners LLC. raised its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,138,398 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $99,156,000 after purchasing an additional 3,588 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Assured Guaranty by 4.0% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,052,906 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $91,708,000 after buying an additional 40,354 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royce & Associates LP grew its position in Assured Guaranty by 1.1% during the first quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,000,760 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $88,167,000 after buying an additional 10,567 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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