Financial Comparison: Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) versus Zurich Insurance Group (OTCMKTS:ZURVY)

Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) and Zurich Insurance Group (OTCMKTS:ZURVY) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Assured Guaranty and Zurich Insurance Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assured Guaranty	40.45%	6.92%	3.28%
Zurich Insurance Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Assured Guaranty pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Zurich Insurance Group pays an annual dividend of $1.22 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Assured Guaranty pays out 17.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Assured Guaranty has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

Assured Guaranty has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Zurich Insurance Group has a beta of 0.54, meaning that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Assured Guaranty and Zurich Insurance Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assured Guaranty	0	3	2	0	2.40
Zurich Insurance Group	1	3	0	0	1.75

Assured Guaranty presently has a consensus price target of $92.33, suggesting a potential upside of 22.91%. Given Assured Guaranty’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Assured Guaranty is more favorable than Zurich Insurance Group.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Zurich Insurance Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.7% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Zurich Insurance Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Assured Guaranty and Zurich Insurance Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Assured Guaranty	$957.00 million	3.52	$503.00 million	$8.71	8.62
Zurich Insurance Group	$62.95 billion	1.70	$6.80 billion	N/A	N/A

Zurich Insurance Group has higher revenue and earnings than Assured Guaranty.

Summary

Assured Guaranty beats Zurich Insurance Group 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 Zurich Insurance Group

Zurich Insurance Group AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance products and related services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through Property & Casualty Regions, Life Regions, Farmers, Group Functions and Operations, and Non-Core Businesses segments. It offers car and motor, home, travel, general liability, life and critical illness, and other insurance products; and saving and investment, and pension and retirement planning products. The company also provides property, casualty, energy and engineering lines, and marine; commercial management liability, financial institutions, and professional indemnity; and cyber, accident and health, and credit lines and surety insurance products, as well as and non-claims and ancillary services to the farmers exchanges. In addition, it offers employee benefit insurance products; and climate resilience, risk engineering, captive, and cyber resilience, as well as climate risk assessment and reinsurance services. The company serves individuals, small businesses, and mid-sized and large companies, as well as multinational corporations. It sells its products through agents, brokers, and bank distribution channels. Zurich Insurance Group AG was founded in 1872 and is based in Zurich, Switzerland.