Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Shares Gap Down Following Insider Selling

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report)'s share price gapped down prior to trading on Monday following insider selling activity. The stock had previously closed at $77.93, but opened at $75.50. Assured Guaranty shares last traded at $75.37, with a volume of 48,650 shares traded.

Specifically, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the 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 owns 1,380,119 shares of the company's stock, valued at $110,423,321.19. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Roth Mkm reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Assured Guaranty from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $87.00 to $92.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 9th.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.87 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $80.55.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 61.17% and a return on equity of 13.19%. The business had revenue of $202.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $193.05 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st were paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty's dividend payout ratio is 9.58%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AGO. Truist Financial Corp bought a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth about $428,000. Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 22,402 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,676,000 after acquiring an additional 2,689 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 407,268 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $30,476,000 after acquiring an additional 4,699 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the fourth quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 8,768 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $656,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company's stock.

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.