De Lisle Partners LLP Increases Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Key Points

• De Lisle Partners LLP increased its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. by 8.7%, owning a total of 49,721 shares valued at approximately $4.38 million by the end of the first quarter.
• Assured Guaranty announced a quarterly dividend of $0.34, reflecting a yield of 1.62%, which was paid to investors of record on May 16th.
• CEO Dominic Frederico sold 10,438 shares for about $899,024, reducing his ownership stake to about 1.34 million shares valued at approximately $115.2 million.

De Lisle Partners LLP raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 8.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 49,721 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 4,000 shares during the quarter. De Lisle Partners LLP owned 0.10% of Assured Guaranty worth $4,377,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.2% in the first quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,827 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares during the period. Choreo LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.2% in the first quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 4,238 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $373,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 27.6% in the first quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 717 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.8% in the first quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,862 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake 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 worth $367,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company's stock.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of AGO stock traded down $0.76 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $83.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 400,854 shares, compared to its average volume of 326,653. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $84.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $86.70. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $72.57 and a 52 week high of $96.50. 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 company has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a PE ratio of 10.01 and a beta of 0.82.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The financial services provider reported $3.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.15 by $0.03. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 45.58%. The business had revenue of $345.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $257.96 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.96 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Laura Bieling sold 2,649 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 13,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,181,425.12. This represents a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 71,917 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.11, for a total value of $6,192,772.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,348,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $116,082,566.03. The trade was a 5.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 85,004 shares of company stock worth $7,324,274 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 5.10% 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.