Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday. The financial services provider reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.42 by $1.00, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $269.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $202.57 million. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 13.19% and a net margin of 61.17%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 33.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.42 EPS.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 2.3 %

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $89.56 on Tuesday. Assured Guaranty has a 1 year low of $64.59 and a 1 year high of $96.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The company has a 50-day moving average of $82.01 and a 200 day moving average of $79.33. The firm has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.28 and a beta of 1.10.

Assured Guaranty Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.08%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AGO has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Assured Guaranty from $84.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,593.05. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 31,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.01, for a total transaction of $2,480,310.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,380,119 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,423,321.19. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Yukiko Omura sold 3,599 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.73, for a total transaction of $286,948.27. Following the transaction, the director now owns 19,285 shares in the company, valued at $1,537,593.05. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 5.10% of the company’s stock.

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.