Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) has been given a $92.00 price objective by equities researchers at UBS Group in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a "neutral" rating on the financial services provider's stock. UBS Group's target price would suggest a potential upside of 12.75% from the company's previous close.
Separately, Wall Street Zen downgraded Assured Guaranty from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday.
Read Our Latest Analysis on AGO
Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.5%
AGO traded down $0.41 on Wednesday, hitting $81.60. The company had a trading volume of 145,087 shares, compared to its average volume of 329,982. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $84.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $86.24. Assured Guaranty has a 12-month low of $74.09 and a 12-month 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 0.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.01 and a beta of 0.88.
Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.57 by ($0.56). The business had revenue of $281.00 million during 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%. Assured Guaranty's revenue was up 39.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.44 EPS. Analysts predict that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty
In other Assured Guaranty news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 10,438 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.13, for a total value of $899,024.94. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,337,635 shares in the company, valued at $115,210,502.55. This represents a 0.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Robert Bailenson sold 40,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.51, for a total value 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 approximately $23,778,749.28. The trade was a 12.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 122,355 shares of company stock valued at $10,352,198 over the last quarter. 5.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty
Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth about $1,305,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 7.9% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 79,865 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $7,036,000 after purchasing an additional 5,826 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 41.7% in the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 70,622 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $6,222,000 after purchasing an additional 20,779 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at about $624,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in Assured Guaranty by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 4,074 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $367,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company's stock.
About Assured Guaranty
(
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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.
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