Piper Jaffray Decreases PT on Assured Guaranty to $30 (AGO)

Piper Jaffray is out with its report today on Assured Guaranty AGO, decreasing PT from $35 to $30. In its note to clients, Piper Jaffray writes, "S&P released for comment proposed changes to rating guidelines for bond insurers. Despite the uncertainty, we continue to recommend investors Overweight shares of Assured Guaranty. S&P's recent actions on the ratings front elicit questions, in our view, from both a timing and soundness of opinion perspective. We briefly address the report as it pertains to AGO and offer numerous possible outcomes. Though we remain Overweight, we revised our price target to reflect current book value ($25) and the expectation for a near term (next twelve months) settlement with mortgage originators($5), the combination of which leads us to a price target of $30 per share down from our previous target of $35 on a 1.3x multiple to forward book value." Shares of AGO are trading pre-market at $15.22, up 1.06% from Tuesday's close.