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

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $245.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $194.78 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.12 earnings per share. Assured Guaranty’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 4.8 %

NYSE:AGO traded up $3.75 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $82.17. The stock had a trading volume of 174,066 shares, compared to its average volume of 388,985. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $77.50. Assured Guaranty has a 1-year low of $49.84 and a 1-year high of $96.60. The company has a market capitalization of $4.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Assured Guaranty

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 transaction of $5,083,650.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,450,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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