Ageas (OTCMKTS:AGESY) versus Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) Head to Head Review

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) and Ageas (OTCMKTS:AGESY) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Dividends

Assured Guaranty pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Ageas pays an annual dividend of $1.59 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Assured Guaranty pays out 16.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Assured Guaranty has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Assured Guaranty and Ageas, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assured Guaranty	0	1	2	0	2.67
Ageas	0	1	0	0	2.00

Assured Guaranty presently has a consensus target price of $103.33, suggesting a potential upside of 19.78%. Given Assured Guaranty’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Assured Guaranty is more favorable than Ageas.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Assured Guaranty and Ageas”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Assured Guaranty	$872.00 million	4.86	$376.00 million	$8.37	10.31
Ageas	$14.68 billion	0.89	$1.21 billion	N/A	N/A

Ageas has higher revenue and earnings than Assured Guaranty.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.1% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Assured Guaranty and Ageas’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assured Guaranty	45.58%	7.76%	3.63%
Ageas	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility and Risk

Assured Guaranty has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ageas has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Assured Guaranty beats Ageas on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. It insures and reinsures various debt obligations, including bonds issued by the United States state governmental authorities; and notes issued to finance infrastructure projects. In addition, the company insures and reinsures various 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. Further, the company involved in insuring and reinsuring of 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, life insurance transactions, consumer receivables securities, subscription finance facilities, pooled corporate obligations, and financial products. Additionally, it offers specialty business, such as real estate properties, insurance securitizations, and aircraft residual value insurance (RVI) transactions; and asset management services comprising investment advisory services. 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 incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

About Ageas

ageas SA/NV, together with its subsidiaries, engages in insurance business. It operates in five segments: Belgium, Europe, Asia, Reinsurance, and General Account. The company offers property, casualty, and life insurance products, as well as pension products; and reinsurance products. It provides life insurance products include risks related to the life and death of individuals; and non-life insurance products comprise accident and health, motor, fire, and other property insurance products, as well as insurance services for other damages to property. The company serves private individuals, as well as small, medium-sized, and large companies through independent brokers and the bank channels. ageas SA/NV was founded in 1824 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.