Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $1.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.55, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $245.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $194.78 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.12 EPS.

Assured Guaranty Price Performance

Shares of AGO traded down $0.96 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $79.06. The stock had a trading volume of 75,611 shares, compared to its average volume of 393,249. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market capitalization of $4.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.45 and a beta of 1.14. The company’s 50-day moving average is $84.24 and its 200 day moving average is $77.55. Assured Guaranty has a 12-month low of $51.05 and a 12-month high of $96.60.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is an increase from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AGO shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “market perform” rating and issued a $92.00 target price (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Monday, April 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.43, for a total transaction of $5,083,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,450,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.