Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

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

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 5.1 %

NYSE:AGO opened at $87.47 on Friday. Assured Guaranty has a 52 week low of $72.57 and a 52 week high of $96.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $91.05 and its 200-day moving average is $86.54. The firm has a market cap of $4.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.80 and a beta of 1.11.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.