Sifting through countless of stocks in the Financial Services industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Essent Group Ltd. or Assured Guaranty Ltd. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd.

Essent Group Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and reinsurance, and title insurance and settlement services to mortgage lenders, borrowers, and investors in the United States. It operates through two segments, Mortgage Insurance and Reinsurance. The company’s mortgage insurance products include primary, pool, and master policy. It also provides information technology maintenance and development services; customer support-related services; underwriting consulting services to third-party reinsurers; and contract underwriting services, as well as credit risk management products. In addition, the company offers title insurance and settlement services; and title insurance underwriting services. It serves the originators of residential mortgage loans, such as regulated depository institutions, mortgage banks, credit unions, and other lenders. Essent Group Ltd. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through Insurance and Asset Management segments. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments. It also provides specialty insurance and reinsurance on transactions with risk profiles similar to those of its structured finance exposures written in financial guaranty form, as well as offers credit protection through reinsurance. In addition, the company insures and reinsures various the U.S. public finance obligations, such as general obligation, tax-backed bonds, municipal utility, transportation, healthcare, higher education, infrastructure, housing revenue, investor-owned utility, renewable energy, and other public finance bonds. Further, it involved in insuring and reinsuring of non-U.S. public finance obligations comprising regulated utilities, infrastructure finance, sovereign and sub-sovereign, renewable energy bonds, and pooled infrastructure obligations; and the U.S. and non-U.S. structured finance obligations, including residential mortgage-backed securities, life insurance transactions, pooled corporate obligations, and financial products. Additionally, the company offers specialty business, such as diversified real estate, insurance reserve financing and securitizations, pooled corporate obligations, 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. Assured Guaranty Ltd. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Latest Financial Services and Essent Group Ltd., Assured Guaranty Ltd. Stock News

As of September 2, 2026, Essent Group Ltd. had a $6.2 billion market capitalization, compared to the Financial Services median of $2.3 million. Essent Group Ltd.’s stock is NA in 2026, NA in the previous five trading days and up 10.12% in the past year.

Currently, Essent Group Ltd.’s price-earnings ratio is 9.7. Essent Group Ltd.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $1.3 billion with a 51.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 13.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $7.559 per share for the current fiscal year. Essent Group Ltd. currently has a 2.0% dividend yield.

Currently, Assured Guaranty Ltd.’s price-earnings ratio is 9.9. Assured Guaranty Ltd.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $813.0 million with a 43.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was -0.5%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $7.042 per share for the current fiscal year. Assured Guaranty Ltd. currently has a 2.0% dividend yield.

How We Compare Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Essent Group Ltd.	ESNT	A
Assured Guaranty Ltd.	AGO	B

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Essent Group Ltd. has a Value Score of 87, which is Deep Value. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a Value Score of 77, which is Value.

The Value Stock Winner: Essent Group Ltd.

As you can clearly see from the Value Grade breakdown above, Essent Group Ltd. is considered to have better value than Assured Guaranty Ltd.. For investors who focus solely on a company’s valuation, Essent Group Ltd. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Essent Group Ltd.	ESNT	B
Assured Guaranty Ltd.	AGO	F

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Essent Group Ltd. has a Growth Score of 73, which is Strong. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a Growth Score of 10, which is Very Weak.

The Growth Grade Winner: Essent Group Ltd.

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, Essent Group Ltd. has a more attractive growth grade than Assured Guaranty Ltd.. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, Essent Group Ltd. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
Essent Group Ltd.	ESNT	B
Assured Guaranty Ltd.	AGO	D

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Essent Group Ltd. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 71, which is Positive. Assured Guaranty Ltd. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 38, which is Negative.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: Essent Group Ltd.

As you can clearly see from the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, Essent Group Ltd. has a better Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade than Assured Guaranty Ltd.. For those who are specifically looking for companies with better short-term prospects when compared to other companies in the same industry, Essent Group Ltd. could be a good stock to invest in. However, it’s important to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd. Grades

In addition to Estimate Revisions, Value and Growth, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Quality.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the ranking of key metrics. Specifically, the quality grade is the percentile rank of the composite of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and F-Score.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Essent Group Ltd. or Assured Guaranty Ltd. Stock?

Overall, Essent Group Ltd. stock has a Value Score of 87, Growth Score of 73 and Estimate Revisions Score of 71.

Assured Guaranty Ltd. stock has a Value Score of 77, Growth Score of 10 and Estimate Revisions Score of 38.

Comparing Essent Group Ltd. and Assured Guaranty Ltd.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.