Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Issues Earnings Results

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.34 by ($0.07), Zacks reports. The company had revenue of $199.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $199.56 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 70.37% and a return on equity of 11.58%.

Assured Guaranty Stock Down 5.1 %

Shares of NYSE AGO opened at $87.47 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.80 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Assured Guaranty has a 12 month low of $72.57 and a 12 month high of $96.50. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $91.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $86.54.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.57%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on AGO shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.