State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Lowers Stock Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 14.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 36,651 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 6,269 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $2,743,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $66,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at approximately $174,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Assured Guaranty in the third quarter worth $211,000. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter valued at about $225,000. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

AGO opened at $78.45 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $49.84 and a 12-month high of $96.60. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $85.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $76.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion, a PE ratio of 6.33 and a beta of 1.12.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $4.57. The firm had revenue of $233.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $196.15 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.22 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AGO shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $92.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group lifted their price target on Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total value of $5,083,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,450,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,099,662.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Profile

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.