Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 891,704 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 29,832 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 1.79% of Assured Guaranty worth $78,559,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 21,508 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,935,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 10,083 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $908,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,590 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,133,000 after acquiring an additional 124 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 46.3% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 471 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 7.0% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,074 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $367,000 after acquiring an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Laura Bieling sold 2,649 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.76, for a total value of $232,476.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 13,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,181,425.12. The trade was a 16.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 71,917 shares of the business'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 transaction of $6,192,772.87. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,348,073 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $116,082,566.03. The trade was a 5.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 85,004 shares of company stock valued at $7,324,274. Company insiders own 5.10% of the company's stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

NYSE:AGO traded up $0.53 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $85.50. 277,662 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 333,507. 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 firm's 50 day simple moving average is $86.06 and its 200 day simple moving average is $87.35. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $72.57 and a 1 year high of $96.50. The company has a market cap of $4.20 billion, a PE ratio of 10.22 and a beta of 0.82.

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

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th were given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. Assured Guaranty's dividend payout ratio is presently 16.25%.

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.