HCI vs. AGO, MCY, HTH, STC, SAFT, EIG, AMSF, PRA, UFCS, and UVE
Should you be buying HCI Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of HCI Group include Assured Guaranty (AGO), Mercury General (MCY), Hilltop (HTH), Stewart Information Services (STC), Safety Insurance Group (SAFT), Employers (EIG), AMERISAFE (AMSF), ProAssurance (PRA), United Fire Group (UFCS), and Universal Insurance (UVE). These companies are all part of the "property & casualty insurance" industry.
Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) and HCI Group (NYSE:HCI) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, community ranking, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends and media sentiment.
Assured Guaranty has higher revenue and earnings than HCI Group. Assured Guaranty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HCI Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Assured Guaranty received 155 more outperform votes than HCI Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.69% of users gave Assured Guaranty an outperform vote while only 61.64% of users gave HCI Group an outperform vote.
Assured Guaranty has a net margin of 57.45% compared to Assured Guaranty's net margin of 17.72%. Assured Guaranty's return on equity of 40.30% beat HCI Group's return on equity.
Assured Guaranty currently has a consensus price target of $94.50, indicating a potential upside of 21.59%. HCI Group has a consensus price target of $127.75, indicating a potential upside of 33.24%. Given Assured Guaranty's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe HCI Group is more favorable than Assured Guaranty.
Assured Guaranty has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its share price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HCI Group has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, Assured Guaranty had 3 more articles in the media than HCI Group. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Assured Guaranty and 5 mentions for HCI Group. Assured Guaranty's average media sentiment score of 0.98 beat HCI Group's score of 0.43 indicating that HCI Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.0% of HCI Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.1% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 25.3% of HCI Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Assured Guaranty pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. HCI Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Assured Guaranty pays out 9.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. HCI Group pays out 16.3% 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. Assured Guaranty has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years.
Summary
Assured Guaranty beats HCI Group on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding HCI and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis 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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