UVE vs. HTH, STC, SAFT, EIG, HCI, AMSF, PRA, UFCS, DGICA, and GBLI
Should you be buying Universal Insurance stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Universal Insurance include Hilltop (HTH), Stewart Information Services (STC), Safety Insurance Group (SAFT), Employers (EIG), HCI Group (HCI), AMERISAFE (AMSF), ProAssurance (PRA), United Fire Group (UFCS), Donegal Group (DGICA), and Global Indemnity Group (GBLI). These companies are all part of the "property & casualty insurance" industry.
Universal Insurance (NYSE:UVE) and Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, community ranking, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and media sentiment.
Hilltop has a net margin of 6.95% compared to Universal Insurance's net margin of 5.29%. Universal Insurance's return on equity of 19.67% beat Hilltop's return on equity.
Universal Insurance currently has a consensus price target of $25.00, suggesting a potential upside of 32.70%. Hilltop has a consensus price target of $32.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.13%. Given Universal Insurance's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Universal Insurance is more favorable than Hilltop.
66.6% of Universal Insurance shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 57.1% of Hilltop shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.5% of Universal Insurance shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 28.9% of Hilltop shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Hilltop has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Universal Insurance. Universal Insurance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hilltop, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Hilltop had 1 more articles in the media than Universal Insurance. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for Hilltop and 1 mentions for Universal Insurance. Universal Insurance's average media sentiment score of 1.43 beat Hilltop's score of 0.00 indicating that Universal Insurance is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Universal Insurance pays an annual dividend of $0.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Hilltop pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Universal Insurance pays out 25.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Hilltop pays out 39.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Universal Insurance is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Universal Insurance received 40 more outperform votes than Hilltop when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.31% of users gave Universal Insurance an outperform vote while only 53.76% of users gave Hilltop an outperform vote.
Universal Insurance has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hilltop has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Universal Insurance beats Hilltop on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding UVE and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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