Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.34 Per Share

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of 0.34 per share by the financial services provider on Wednesday, March 19th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.48%. This is a boost from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31.

Assured Guaranty has increased its dividend by an average of 12.1% per year over the last three years. Assured Guaranty has a dividend payout ratio of 16.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Assured Guaranty to earn $6.50 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 19.1%.

Assured Guaranty Stock Performance

Shares of Assured Guaranty stock opened at $91.76 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $4.67 billion, a PE ratio of 7.13 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Assured Guaranty has a 52 week low of $72.57 and a 52 week high of $96.60. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $90.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.86.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AGO shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $92.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, UBS Group boosted 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.

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.