How Hedge Funds Feel About Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO)?

Since Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) has faced declining sentiment from hedge fund managers, it’s easy to see that there were a few funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely last quarter. At the top of the heap, Scott Lawrence Swid’s SLS Management cut the largest stake of the “upper crust” of funds tracked by Insider Monkey, worth an estimated $9.6 million in stock, and Orlando Muyshondt of Tyrian Investments was right behind this move, as the fund said goodbye to about $8.9 million worth of shares. These moves are interesting, as total hedge fund interest was cut by 10 funds last quarter.

Let’s also examine hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) but similarly valued. These stocks are Highwoods Properties Inc (NYSE:HIW), Urban Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ:URBN), Sun Communities Inc (NYSE:SUI), and Solera Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLH). All of these stocks’ market caps resemble AGO’s market cap.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 19.25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $321 million. This figure stands at $735 million in AGO’s case. Solera Holdings Inc (NYSE:SLH) is the most popular stock in this table with 38 long positions, while Sun Communities Inc (NYSE:SUI) is the least popular one. Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard SLH might be a better candidate to consider a long position.