How to buy Assured Guaranty shares | $19.73

Assured Guaranty Ltd is an insurance—specialty business with stocks listed in the US. Assured Guaranty shares (AGO) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Its last market close was US$19.73 – a decrease of 4.5% over the previous week.

How to buy shares in Assured Guaranty

1. Compare share trading platforms. To buy shares in a US company from Australia you'll need to find a trading platform that offers access to US stock markets. If you're just starting out, look for a platform with low brokerage and foreign exchange fees.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Assured Guaranty. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: AGO. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Assured Guaranty reaches your desired price. To spread out your risk, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of US$19.73, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Assured Guaranty, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Assured Guaranty. Optimise your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Assured Guaranty's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Assured Guaranty's share price has had significant negative movement.

Its last market close was US$19.73, which is 57.39% down on its pre-crash value of US$46.3 and 44.65% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as US$13.64.

If you had bought US$1,000 worth of Assured Guaranty shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth US$416.22 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth US$424.39.

Assured Guaranty share price

Use our graph to track the performance of AGO stocks over time.

Assured Guaranty shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-09-13.

Latest market close	USD$19.73
52-week range	USD$13.64 - USD$50.77
50-day moving average	USD$22.2574
200-day moving average	USD$26.496
Target price	USD$44.67
PE ratio	5.7841
Dividend yield	USD$0.8 (3.93%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$3.552

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The value of your investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you invested. Past performance is no indication of future results.

Is it a good time to buy Assured Guaranty stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Assured Guaranty Ltd by TradingView

Assured Guaranty price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the last close of $19.73

1 week (2020-09-11)	-4.50%
1 month (2020-08-18)	-14.40%
3 months (2020-06-18)	-22.87%
6 months (2020-03-18)	-6.05%

1 year (2019-09-18)	-56.45%
2 years (2018-09-18)	-51.28%
3 years (2017-09-18)	-52.37%
5 years (2015-09-18)	-21.43%

Is Assured Guaranty under- or over-valued?

Valuing Assured Guaranty stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Assured Guaranty's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Assured Guaranty's P/E ratio

Assured Guaranty's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 6x. In other words, Assured Guaranty shares trade at around 6x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Assured Guaranty's PEG ratio

Assured Guaranty's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.52. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Assured Guaranty's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Assured Guaranty financials

Revenue TTM	US$1 billion
Operating margin TTM	52.38%
Gross profit TTM	US$829 million
Return on assets TTM	2.33%
Return on equity TTM	5.06%
Profit margin	33.13%
Book value	76.72
Market capitalisation	US$1.7 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Assured Guaranty shares

There are currently 2.9 million Assured Guaranty shares held short by investors – that's known as Assured Guaranty's "short interest". This figure is 3% down from 3.0 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Assured Guaranty shares can be evaluated.

Assured Guaranty's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Assured Guaranty's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Assured Guaranty shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Assured Guaranty shares traded daily (recently around 795331.21546961). Assured Guaranty's SIR currently stands at 3.62. In other words for every 100,000 Assured Guaranty shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3620 shares are currently held short.

However Assured Guaranty's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Assured Guaranty shares, or, against the total number of tradable Assured Guaranty shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Assured Guaranty's short interest could be expressed as 0.03% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Assured Guaranty shares in existence, roughly 30 shares are currently held short) or 0.036% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Assured Guaranty shares, roughly 36 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Assured Guaranty.

Find out more about how you can short Assured Guaranty stock.

Assured Guaranty share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 21.59% of net profits

Recently Assured Guaranty has paid out, on average, around 21.59% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 3.93% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Assured Guaranty shareholders could enjoy a 3.93% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Assured Guaranty's case, that would currently equate to about $0.8 per share.

While Assured Guaranty's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Assured Guaranty is investing more in its future growth.

Assured Guaranty's most recent dividend payout was on 1 September 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 17 August 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Assured Guaranty share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Assured Guaranty's shares have ranged in value from as little as US$13.64 up to US$50.77. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Assured Guaranty's is 1.1812. This would suggest that Assured Guaranty's shares are a little bit more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a slightly higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Assured Guaranty overview

Assured Guaranty Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Insurance and Asset Management. It offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments. The company insures and reinsures various debt obligations, including bonds issued by the United States state, governmental authorities, or municipal governmental authorities; and notes issued to finance infrastructure projects. It also insures and reinsures various types of the U.S. public finance obligations, such as general obligation, tax-backed, municipal utility, transportation, healthcare, higher education, infrastructure, housing revenue, investor-owned utility, renewable energy, and other public finance bonds; non-U.S. public finance obligations comprising regulated utilities, infrastructure finance, sovereign and sub-sovereign, renewable energy bonds, pooled infrastructure, and other public finance obligations; and the U.S. and non-U.S. Structured finance obligations, including residential mortgage-backed securities, insurance securitization obligations, consumer receivables securities, pooled corporate obligations, financial products, and other structured finance securities. In addition, the company provides asset management services comprising investment advisory services, including management of collateralized loan obligations and opportunity funds to outside investors. It markets its financial guaranty insurance directly to issuers and underwriters of public finance and structured finance securities, as well as to investors in such obligations. Assured Guaranty Ltd. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Assured Guaranty is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 4.504% of Assured Guaranty shares are held by insiders and 98.728% by institutions.

• When does the fiscal year end for Assured Guaranty?

  Assured Guaranty's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Assured Guaranty based?

  Assured Guaranty's address is: 30 Woodbourne Avenue, Hamilton, Bermuda, HM 08

• What is Assured Guaranty's ISIN number?

  Assured Guaranty's international securities identification number is: BMG0585R1060

• What is Assured Guaranty's CUSIP number?

  Assured Guaranty's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: G0585R106