Roth Capital Analysts Lift Earnings Estimates for Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO)

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) – Research analysts at Roth Capital raised their FY2024 EPS estimates for Assured Guaranty in a report released on Wednesday, May 8th. Roth Capital analyst H. Fong now expects that the financial services provider will post earnings per share of $6.45 for the year, up from their previous forecast of $6.00. The consensus estimate for Assured Guaranty’s current full-year earnings is $6.00 per share. Roth Capital also issued estimates for Assured Guaranty’s Q1 2025 earnings at $1.67 EPS and Q3 2025 earnings at $1.85 EPS.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on AGO. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $64.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and issued a $92.00 price target (up from $75.00) on shares of Assured Guaranty in a research note on Monday, April 1st.

Assured Guaranty Stock Up 4.7 %

Shares of NYSE:AGO opened at $82.08 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $4.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.62 and a beta of 1.14. Assured Guaranty has a fifty-two week low of $49.84 and a fifty-two week high of $96.60. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $84.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $77.54.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The financial services provider reported $1.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.55. The firm had revenue of $245.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $194.78 million. Assured Guaranty had a net margin of 53.82% and a return on equity of 11.82%. The firm’s revenue was down 13.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.12 earnings per share.

Assured Guaranty Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.51%. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 14th. Assured Guaranty’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.00%.

Insider Activity at Assured Guaranty

In related news, CEO Dominic Frederico sold 55,000 shares of Assured Guaranty stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were 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 directly owns 1,450,824 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,099,662.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 5.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Assured Guaranty

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Householder Group Estate & Retirement Specialist LLC acquired a new position in shares of Assured Guaranty during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at about $53,000. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 4th quarter valued at about $66,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 3rd quarter valued at about $174,000. Finally, Atlas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Assured Guaranty in the 1st quarter valued at about $182,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.22% of the company’s stock.

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.