Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO – Get Rating) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 841,700 shares, a decrease of 10.5% from the March 15th total of 940,200 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 278,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days. Approximately 1.5% of the company's shares are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Assured Guaranty

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Assured Guaranty in the fourth quarter valued at $36,561,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 5.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,928,269 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $504,714,000 after acquiring an additional 410,594 shares in the last quarter. Reinhart Partners Inc. raised its holdings in Assured Guaranty by 62.1% during the third quarter. Reinhart Partners Inc. now owns 679,897 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $32,941,000 after acquiring an additional 260,507 shares in the last quarter. Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco LLC increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 59.2% during the third quarter. Philadelphia Financial Management of San Francisco LLC now owns 545,196 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $26,415,000 after buying an additional 202,687 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Assured Guaranty by 102.8% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 380,816 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $21,246,000 after buying an additional 193,081 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.51% of the company's stock.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

AGO stock traded down $0.03 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $54.17. 71,446 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 268,158. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $55.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.34. Assured Guaranty has a one year low of $45.21 and a one year high of $67.13. The company has a market cap of $3.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.94 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 28th. The financial services provider reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 4.88% and a net margin of 17.15%. The firm had revenue of $292.00 million during the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 8th were issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 7th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.07%. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. Assured Guaranty's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.73%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Assured Guaranty from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. Roth Capital restated a "buy" rating on shares of Assured Guaranty in a report on Wednesday, March 1st.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

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Assured Guaranty Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of credit protection products to the U.S. and international public finance, and structured finance markets through its subsidiaries. It operates through the following segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The Insurance segment includes the company's domestic and foreign insurance subsidiaries and their wholly-owned subsidiaries that provide credit protection products to the U.S.

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