Royce & Associates LP Increases Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Royce & Associates LP raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 990,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,062 shares during the period. Assured Guaranty makes up 0.8% of Royce & Associates LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Assured Guaranty were worth $89,127,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of AGO. River Road Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Assured Guaranty by 67.4% in the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 1,116,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $100,463,000 after purchasing an additional 449,310 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,005,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $90,531,000 after acquiring an additional 28,026 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 926,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $73,670,000 after acquiring an additional 2,953 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in Assured Guaranty by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 719,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $64,740,000 after acquiring an additional 66,487 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in Assured Guaranty by 50.7% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 434,173 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,525,000 after acquiring an additional 146,107 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. 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.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

NYSE AGO opened at $86.32 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $90.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.22. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a 12-month low of $72.57 and a 12-month high of $96.50. The firm has a market cap of $4.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.71 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The financial services provider reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.34 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $199.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $199.56 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 7.3 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.58%. This is an increase from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is presently 19.94%.

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.