Insider Selling: Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) CEO Sells 40,000 Shares of Stock

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) CEO Dominic Frederico sold 40,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.12, for a total value of $3,124,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,410,824 shares of the company's stock, valued at $110,213,570.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AGO traded down $0.17 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $76.98. 413,046 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 406,385. The stock has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.94 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $53.14 and a twelve month high of $96.60. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $77.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $80.25.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.55. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 57.45% and a return on equity of 12.48%. The firm had revenue of $245.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $194.78 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.12 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th were issued a $0.31 dividend. This is a boost from Assured Guaranty's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. Assured Guaranty's payout ratio is 9.58%.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC purchased a new stake in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth about $53,000. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth about $66,000. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 1st quarter worth about $182,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.22% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $87.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 31st. UBS Group raised their target price on Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 1st.

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.