Intech Investment Management LLC Purchases 118,170 Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) by 236.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 168,141 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 118,170 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC owned about 0.33% of Assured Guaranty worth $15,134,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. River Road Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 67.4% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 449,310 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 1,005,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $90,531,000 after buying an additional 28,026 shares in the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 990,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,127,000 after buying an additional 9,062 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 926,415 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $73,670,000 after buying an additional 2,953 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 719,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $64,740,000 after buying an additional 66,487 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 1.2 %

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $87.30 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $90.20 and a 200-day moving average of $87.33. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a one year low of $72.57 and a one year high of $96.50. 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 company has a market cap of $4.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.78 and a beta of 1.11.

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

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.56%. 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 dividend payout ratio is currently 19.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of 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 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.