Beazley (BEZ) Competitors

Lancashire (LON:LRE) and Beazley (LON:BEZ) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, media sentiment, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, LRE or BEZ?

Beazley has higher revenue and earnings than Lancashire. Beazley is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lancashire, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lancashire	£536.12M	3.29	£199.02M	£52.49	11.14
Beazley	£6.57B	1.07	£1.50B	£159.74	5.74

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer LRE or BEZ?

Beazley received 351 more outperform votes than Lancashire when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.90% of users gave Beazley an outperform vote while only 44.53% of users gave Lancashire an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Lancashire	Outperform Votes 334 44.53%	Underperform Votes 416 55.47%
Beazley	Outperform Votes 685 63.90%	Underperform Votes 387 36.10%

Is LRE or BEZ a better dividend stock?

Lancashire pays an annual dividend of GBX 18 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Beazley pays an annual dividend of GBX 14 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Lancashire pays out 34.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Beazley pays out 8.8% 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.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in LRE or BEZ?

60.5% of Lancashire shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.5% of Beazley shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Lancashire shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Beazley shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is LRE or BEZ more profitable?

Lancashire has a net margin of 37.12% compared to Beazley's net margin of 22.82%. Beazley's return on equity of 32.60% beat Lancashire's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lancashire	37.12%	10.76%	6.75%
Beazley	22.82%	32.60%	9.50%

Does the media prefer LRE or BEZ?

In the previous week, Lancashire had 4 more articles in the media than Beazley. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Lancashire and 1 mentions for Beazley. Beazley's average media sentiment score of 1.11 beat Lancashire's score of -0.13 indicating that Beazley is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Lancashire	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Beazley	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts prefer LRE or BEZ?

Lancashire currently has a consensus price target of GBX 788.75, indicating a potential upside of 34.83%. Beazley has a consensus price target of GBX 943, indicating a potential upside of 2.89%. Given Lancashire's higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Lancashire is more favorable than Beazley.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lancashire	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75
Beazley	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has more risk and volatility, LRE or BEZ?

Lancashire has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Beazley has a beta of 0.68, suggesting that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Beazley beats Lancashire on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.