Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 943,800 shares, an increase of 5.6% from the November 15th total of 893,700 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 328,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days. Approximately 2.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

In related news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,537,593.05. This represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 293.6% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 126,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,773,000 after purchasing an additional 94,486 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth about $870,000. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,691,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,088,000. Finally, Reinhart Partners LLC. boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 977,758 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $77,751,000 after acquiring an additional 71,114 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of AGO stock opened at $88.91 on Wednesday. Assured Guaranty has a 52 week low of $71.41 and a 52 week high of $96.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.53 billion, a PE ratio of 6.91 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $88.16 and its 200-day moving average is $81.90.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The business had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $202.57 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.42 earnings per share. Assured Guaranty’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Assured Guaranty will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.63%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on AGO. UBS Group boosted their price target on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.