American Century Companies Inc. Grows Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Key Points

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American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 12.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,012,552 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 109,282 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 2.03% of Assured Guaranty worth $89,206,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ethic Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 102.7% during the 1st quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 7,224 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $636,000 after acquiring an additional 3,660 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 136,819 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $12,054,000 after purchasing an additional 17,373 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 47.9% in the 1st quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 176,354 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $15,537,000 after purchasing an additional 57,116 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $293,632,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $104,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of Assured Guaranty to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Friday, August 8th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $98.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total transaction 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. This trade represents a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of AGO traded up $1.5330 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $82.4230. 232,070 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 346,804. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.11 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50-day moving average of $84.11 and a 200-day moving average of $85.61. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $74.09 and a fifty-two week high of $96.50.

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

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

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

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

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.