State Street Corp Reduces Stock Position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

State Street Corp lessened its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO - Free Report) by 0.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,932,595 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 6,354 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned about 3.80% of Assured Guaranty worth $153,680,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AGO. CWM LLC grew its stake in Assured Guaranty by 535.9% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,965 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $152,000 after acquiring an additional 1,656 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,389,000. LRI Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.5% in the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 292,867 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $22,595,000 after purchasing an additional 9,971 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 5.1% in the second quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 44,814 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $3,457,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in Assured Guaranty by 3.0% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 12,466 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $962,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the period. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

NYSE AGO traded down $0.65 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $90.05. 509,757 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 373,525. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $87.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $81.72. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 1 year low of $71.11 and a 1 year high of $96.60. The company has a market cap of $4.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.00 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. Assured Guaranty's payout ratio is 9.63%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AGO. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total value of $286,948.27. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,593.05. The trade was a 15.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 5.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.