Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGO) To Go Ex-Dividend on August 20th

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a dividend of 0.38 per share by the financial services provider on Thursday, September 3rd. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th.

Assured Guaranty has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 7 years. Assured Guaranty has a dividend payout ratio of 21.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Assured Guaranty to earn $6.23 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.4%.

Assured Guaranty Trading Down 0.8%

Assured Guaranty stock opened at $76.14 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.64. Assured Guaranty has a fifty-two week low of $72.76 and a fifty-two week high of $92.39. The stock has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.15 and a beta of 0.75. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $80.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $81.54.

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The financial services provider reported $1.23 EPS for the quarter. Assured Guaranty had a return on equity of 7.11% and a net margin of 37.34%.The business had revenue of $195.00 million during the quarter. Equities research analysts forecast that Assured Guaranty will post 6.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AGO has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group raised shares of Assured Guaranty from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $94.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, May 18th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Roth Capital cut shares of Assured Guaranty from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $101.00 to $97.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $90.33.

Assured Guaranty Company Profile

Assured Guaranty Ltd is a Bermuda-domiciled provider of financial guaranty insurance and reinsurance products serving public finance, infrastructure and structured finance markets. The company’s primary business activity is credit enhancement, whereby it guarantees the timely payment of principal and interest on debt obligations issued by municipal and infrastructure entities. By combining rigorous risk assessment with active portfolio management, Assured Guaranty helps issuers access capital at more attractive rates while protecting investors against credit events.

In its public finance segment, the company underwrites municipal bond insurance for state and local governments, public-private partnerships and essential infrastructure projects.