Brown Advisory Inc. Sells 98,297 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Brown Advisory Inc. lowered its position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 15.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 529,441 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 98,297 shares during the quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. owned approximately 1.06% of Assured Guaranty worth $46,644,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 103.4% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 9,568 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $861,000 after acquiring an additional 4,864 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1,794.9% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,497 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $135,000 after buying an additional 1,418 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter worth about $28,060,000. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 646.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 74,228 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $6,594,000 after buying an additional 64,290 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Assured Guaranty news, CAO Laura Bieling sold 2,649 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.76, for a total value of $232,476.24. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 13,462 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,181,425.12. This trade represents a 16.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 10,438 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.13, for a total value of $899,024.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,337,635 shares in the company, valued at approximately $115,210,502.55. This represents a 0.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 85,004 shares of company stock worth $7,324,274 in the last three months. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

AGO opened at $84.78 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.83. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $85.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.16 billion, a PE ratio of 10.13 and a beta of 0.82. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52-week low of $72.57 and a 52-week high of $96.50.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.15 by $0.03. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 45.58%. The firm had revenue of $345.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $257.96 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.96 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. Assured Guaranty's dividend payout ratio is currently 16.25%.

Assured Guaranty 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.

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