Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Position Increased by Cerity Partners LLC

Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 112.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 174,447 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 92,408 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC owned approximately 0.33% of Assured Guaranty worth $13,872,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AGO. Gladius Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at $35,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 66.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 493 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 197 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter worth $46,000. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 183.8% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 596 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 386 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AGO. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective 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.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total value of $2,480,310.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $110,423,321.19. The trade was a 2.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,285 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 5.10% of the company's stock.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE:AGO traded down $1.48 on Tuesday, reaching $93.21. The stock had a trading volume of 113,291 shares, compared to its average volume of 379,087. The company has a market cap of $4.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.36 and a beta of 1.10. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $67.25 and a 12-month high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm's fifty day moving average is $84.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $80.34.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00. The firm had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. The company's revenue was down 33.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.42 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.63%.

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.