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

Assured Guaranty Ltd. (NYSE:AGO) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid 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 1.49%. This is a positive change from Assured Guaranty’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31.

Assured Guaranty has increased its dividend payment by an average of 12.1% annually over the last three years. Assured Guaranty has a dividend payout ratio of 16.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Up 1.0 %

AGO opened at $91.52 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $90.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $85.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.11 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 has a one year low of $72.57 and a one year high of $96.60.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AGO has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Assured Guaranty from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Assured Guaranty from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, 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 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.