Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC Has $6.25 Million Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Key Points

• Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. by 42.3%, owning approximately 0.14% of the company after selling over 52,000 shares.
• Assured Guaranty reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the last quarter, missing analysts' expectations, despite a revenue increase of 39.1% year-over-year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.34 per share, with a payout ratio of 15.03% and an annualized dividend yield of 1.7%.

Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 42.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 70,897 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 52,008 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC owned 0.14% of Assured Guaranty worth $6,246,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allworth Financial LP raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 27.6% in the 1st quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 717 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at $97,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at $104,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 554.2% in the 1st quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,544 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $136,000 after acquiring an additional 1,308 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Financial LLC bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at $203,000. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AGO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group dropped their price target on Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen cut Assured Guaranty from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Assured Guaranty to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently 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 the 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $23,778,749.28. This represents a 12.06% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company's stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

AGO stock traded up $0.20 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $82.10. 299,670 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 363,720. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.07 and a beta of 0.91. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12 month low of $74.09 and a 12 month high of $96.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $83.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $85.14.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.57 by ($0.56). The company had revenue of $281.00 million for 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 business's revenue for the quarter was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 20th. Assured Guaranty's dividend payout ratio is 15.03%.

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.