Wellington Management Group LLP Lowers Stock Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

Key Points

• Wellington Management Group LLP reduced its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. by 4.5%, selling 201,907 shares, and now holds approximately 8.59% of the company valued at $378 million.
• Assured Guaranty reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.01 for the last quarter, significantly missing the consensus estimate of $1.57, although it experienced a revenue increase of 39.1% year over year.
• Recent analyst ratings for Assured Guaranty include a downgrade to “sell” from "hold" by Wall Street Zen and a price target adjustment by UBS Group to $92.00 with a "neutral" rating.

Wellington Management Group LLP reduced its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 4.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,290,819 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 201,907 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP owned about 8.59% of Assured Guaranty worth $378,021,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Allworth Financial LP raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 27.6% in the 1st 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 last quarter. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter worth approximately $97,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter worth approximately $104,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $136,000 after acquiring an additional 1,308 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter worth approximately $218,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total transaction of $3,260,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer owned 291,728 shares of the company's stock, valued at $23,778,749.28. The trade was a 12.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

NYSE:AGO traded up $1.5330 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $82.4230. The company had a trading volume of 232,070 shares, compared to its average volume of 347,442. The company has a current ratio of 0.75, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $74.09 and a 52 week high of $96.50. The firm has a market cap of $3.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.11 and a beta of 0.88. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $84.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.50.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.57 by ($0.56). Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 44.53% and a return on equity of 7.18%. The business had revenue of $281.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $203.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.44 EPS. The company's revenue was up 39.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AGO shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $95.00 to $92.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Assured Guaranty presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $98.50.

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.