Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO – Get Free Report) and Goosehead Insurance (NASDAQ:GSHD – Get Free Report) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Assured Guaranty and Goosehead Insurance”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Assured Guaranty | $872.00 million | 4.44 | $376.00 million | $9.05 | 8.99 |
| Goosehead Insurance | $314.51 million | 9.51 | $30.43 million | $1.13 | 70.47 |
Risk & Volatility
Assured Guaranty has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Goosehead Insurance has a beta of 1.34, indicating that its share price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Assured Guaranty and Goosehead Insurance, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Assured Guaranty | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Goosehead Insurance | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2.42 |
Assured Guaranty currently has a consensus target price of $98.50, suggesting a potential upside of 21.03%. Goosehead Insurance has a consensus target price of $109.36, suggesting a potential upside of 37.34%. Given Goosehead Insurance’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Goosehead Insurance is more favorable than Assured Guaranty.
Profitability
This table compares Assured Guaranty and Goosehead Insurance’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Assured Guaranty | 44.53% | 7.18% | 3.38% |
| Goosehead Insurance | 8.76% | -59.49% | 8.70% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are held by institutional investors. 5.1% of Assured Guaranty shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 37.8% of Goosehead Insurance shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Goosehead Insurance beats Assured Guaranty on 9 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 Goosehead Insurance
Goosehead Insurance, Inc. operates as a holding company for Goosehead Financial, LLC that engages in the provision of personal lines insurance agency services in the United States. The company offers homeowner’s, automotive, dwelling property, flood, wind, earthquake, excess liability or umbrella, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, general liability, property, and life insurance products and services. As of December 31, 2023, it operated 1,415 franchise locations. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.
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