VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Purchases New Holdings in Assured Guaranty Ltd. $AGO

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 35,150 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,818,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in Assured Guaranty by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 5,111 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $459,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its position in shares of Assured Guaranty by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 6,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $542,000 after acquiring an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 6.3% during the third quarter. Prelude Capital Management LLC now owns 3,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 199 shares during the period. Osaic Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Assured Guaranty by 12.9% during the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 1,764 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 4.1% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 5,853 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $477,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the last quarter. 92.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Guaranty Ltd Assured purchased 209,388 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 22nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $24.83 per share, with a total value of $5,199,104.04. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 1,212,106 shares in the company, valued at $30,096,591.98. The trade was a 20.88% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 5.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. UBS Group upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 16th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

AGO stock opened at $73.11 on Friday. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a twelve month low of $72.13 and a twelve month high of $92.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 0.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $3.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.75 and a beta of 0.73. The business’s fifty day moving average is $79.43 and its 200-day moving average is $80.07.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 37.34%. Equities research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty Ltd. will post 6.91 EPS for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 20th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Assured Guaranty Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd is a Bermuda-domiciled provider of financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance products serving public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. The company’s primary business activity is credit enhancement, whereby it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on debt obligations issued by municipal and infrastructure entities. By combining rigorous risk assessment with active portfolio management, Assured Guaranty helps issuers access capital at more attractive rates while protecting investors against credit events.

In its public finance segment, the company underwrites municipal bond insurance for state and local governments, public-private partnerships and essential infrastructure projects.