Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.07 EPS

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The financial services provider reported $1.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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%.

Assured Guaranty Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $92.28 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $91.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $86.45. Assured Guaranty has a 1 year low of $72.57 and a 1 year high of $96.60. The company has a market capitalization of $4.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.17 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The firm 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 an increase 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 1.47%. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AGO has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a 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.