Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.55 EPS

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.55, Briefing.com reports. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The business had revenue of $245.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $194.78 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.12 EPS. Assured Guaranty’s revenue was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

AGO traded up $3.75 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $82.17. 174,066 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 388,985. The firm has a market cap of $4.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Assured Guaranty has a one year low of $49.84 and a one year high of $96.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $84.73 and its 200 day moving average is $77.50.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.51%. This is a boost from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. Assured Guaranty’s payout ratio is presently 10.00%.

Insider Activity

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

About Assured Guaranty

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.