Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 923,462 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 93,460 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 1.70% of Assured Guaranty worth $71,245,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 1,990.0% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 60,839 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $5,308,000 after buying an additional 57,928 shares during the last quarter. Wealthstar Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 279.2% in the 1st quarter. Wealthstar Advisors LLC now owns 15,426 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 11,358 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 42.7% during the 1st quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 24,136 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 7,222 shares during the last quarter. Capstone Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty during the first quarter worth $885,000. Finally, Symmetry Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the first quarter valued at about $908,000. 92.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Roth Mkm restated a "buy" rating and set a $110.00 price target on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com cut Assured Guaranty from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $102.00 to $84.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Assured Guaranty from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $87.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 40,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 20th. The stock was 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 5.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of AGO stock traded up $0.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $80.09. 263,485 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 388,352. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 52-week low of $58.14 and a 52-week high of $96.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.18 and a beta of 1.11. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $78.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $80.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.44 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $202.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $193.05 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 12.48% and a net margin of 57.45%. The company's revenue was down 43.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Assured Guaranty Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 21st will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 21st. Assured Guaranty's payout ratio is 9.58%.

Assured Guaranty 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.

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