Engineers Gate Manager LP Grows Stock Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Key Points

• Engineers Gate Manager LP increased its Assured Guaranty stake by 568.4% in the second quarter, reaching 36,943 shares valued at approximately $2.96 million. Institutional investors collectively own 92.22% of AGO.
• Analyst sentiment remains mixed but leans toward “Hold”: UBS upgraded the stock to “Buy,” while other firms maintained or adjusted neutral-to-positive ratings. The consensus price target is $90.33 versus a recent price of $72.98.
• Assured Guaranty reported quarterly EPS of $1.23 on $195 million in revenue and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.38 per share, equivalent to a 2.1% annualized yield.

Engineers Gate Manager LP boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 568.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,943 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 31,416 shares during the quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP owned about 0.08% of Assured Guaranty worth $2,961,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $459,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,030 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $542,000 after buying an additional 198 shares in the last quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 6.3% in the third quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC now owns 3,357 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $284,000 after buying an additional 199 shares in the last quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 12.9% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,764 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $154,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 4.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,853 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $477,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AGO shares. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group upgraded Assured Guaranty from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, August 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Assured Guaranty presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

NYSE AGO opened at $72.98 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.64 and a quick ratio of 0.64. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1-year low of $72.13 and a 1-year high of $92.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.73 and a beta of 0.73. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $79.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.98.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 37.34%. Equities analysts predict that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 20th. Assured Guaranty's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.27%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 209,388 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 22nd. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $24.83 per share, with a total value of $5,199,104.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 1,212,106 shares in the company, valued at approximately $30,096,591.98. The trade was a 20.88% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 5.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd. NYSE: AGO is a Bermuda-based financial services company that provides financial guarantees and related credit enhancement products. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company helps support the repayment of debt issued by public-sector entities, infrastructure projects and other borrowers.

The company's principal business is financial guaranty insurance, which generally protects investors against scheduled principal and interest payment defaults on insured obligations.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.