Short Interest in Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Increases By 5.9%

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 978,900 shares, an increase of 5.9% from the March 15th total of 924,700 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 369,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total value of $5,083,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,450,824 shares in the company, valued at $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 226,309 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,935,000 after purchasing an additional 21,025 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.2% in the fourth quarter. Reinhart Partners LLC. now owns 893,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,882,000 after purchasing an additional 67,613 shares in the last quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 8.5% in the third quarter. Cambria Investment Management L.P. now owns 161,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,784,000 after purchasing an additional 12,621 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty in the third quarter valued at $174,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 27.4% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 273,395 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,546,000 after purchasing an additional 58,873 shares in the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on AGO. UBS Group lifted their price target on Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $92.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Monday, April 1st.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Assured Guaranty stock traded down $0.41 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $78.42. 337,136 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 485,389. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $86.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $75.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.35 billion, a PE ratio of 6.33 and a beta of 1.12. Assured Guaranty has a one year low of $49.84 and a one year high of $96.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $5.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $4.57. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 11.82% and a net margin of 53.82%. The business had revenue of $233.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $196.15 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Assured Guaranty will post 6 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is currently 10.00%.

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.