Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Position Lessened by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its stake in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 158,420 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 9,970 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.31% of Assured Guaranty worth $14,259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 80.5% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 9,970 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $801,000 after buying an additional 4,447 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 32.3% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 13,062 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,039,000 after acquiring an additional 3,191 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,595,000. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 214.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 24,879 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,980,000 after purchasing an additional 16,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 3rd quarter worth about $224,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company's stock.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 0.6 %

NYSE:AGO traded down $0.52 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $82.75. The company had a trading volume of 9,430 shares, compared to its average volume of 351,595. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $88.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.43 and a beta of 0.84. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $72.57 and a 1 year high of $96.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.34 by ($0.07). Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.58% and a net margin of 70.37%. The business had revenue of $199.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.56 million. Equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th were issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty's previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Assured Guaranty's payout ratio is 19.94%.

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.