AFG vs. L, KMPR, ROOT, HIG, RNR, CNA, KNSL, RLI, SIGI, and AXS
Should you be buying American Financial Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of American Financial Group include Loews (L), Kemper (KMPR), Root (ROOT), The Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG), RenaissanceRe (RNR), CNA Financial (CNA), Kinsale Capital Group (KNSL), RLI (RLI), Selective Insurance Group (SIGI), and AXIS Capital (AXS). These companies are all part of the "fire, marine, & casualty insurance" industry.
Loews (NYSE:L) and American Financial Group (NYSE:AFG) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, community ranking and dividends.
Loews pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. American Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $2.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Loews pays out 3.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Financial Group pays out 27.2% 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. American Financial Group has raised its dividend for 18 consecutive years. American Financial Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Loews has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Financial Group has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.
American Financial Group has a net margin of 11.03% compared to American Financial Group's net margin of 9.27%. Loews' return on equity of 21.34% beat American Financial Group's return on equity.
American Financial Group received 50 more outperform votes than Loews when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 60.67% of users gave Loews an outperform vote while only 60.15% of users gave American Financial Group an outperform vote.
Loews currently has a consensus price target of $170.00, suggesting a potential upside of 118.68%. American Financial Group has a consensus price target of $135.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.09%. Given American Financial Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Loews is more favorable than American Financial Group.
In the previous week, American Financial Group had 1 more articles in the media than Loews. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for American Financial Group and 14 mentions for Loews. American Financial Group's average media sentiment score of 0.84 beat Loews' score of 0.74 indicating that Loews is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Loews has higher revenue and earnings than American Financial Group. Loews is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Financial Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
58.3% of Loews shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.4% of American Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 18.7% of Loews shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.5% of American Financial Group shares are held by company 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.
Summary
American Financial Group beats Loews on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AFG 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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