Yousif Capital Management LLC Has $2.11 Million Stock Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Yousif Capital Management LLC reduced its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 3.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 28,146 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,022 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $2,106,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,141,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,035,000. Raymond James & Associates increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 226,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $16,935,000 after purchasing an additional 21,025 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $66,882,000 after purchasing an additional 67,613 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cambria Investment Management L.P. increased its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 8.5% in the third quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. now owns 161,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,784,000 after purchasing an additional 12,621 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total transaction of $5,083,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,450,824 shares in the company, valued at $134,099,662.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 2.3 %

NYSE AGO opened at $76.68 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $4.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.18 and a beta of 1.12. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52 week low of $49.84 and a 52 week high of $96.60. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $85.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $76.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $4.57. The firm had revenue of $233.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.15 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.82% and a net margin of 53.82%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.46%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is 10.00%.

Assured Guaranty Company 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.