AXIS Capital (AXS) Competitors

AXIS Capital (NYSE:AXS) and W. R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking and risk.

Is AXS or WRB a better dividend stock?

AXIS Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. W. R. Berkley pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. AXIS Capital pays out 14.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. W. R. Berkley pays out 7.3% 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. W. R. Berkley has raised its dividend for 23 consecutive years.

Is AXS or WRB more profitable?

AXIS Capital has a net margin of 18.16% compared to W. R. Berkley's net margin of 12.88%. W. R. Berkley's return on equity of 20.83% beat AXIS Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AXIS Capital	18.16%	18.89%	3.05%
W. R. Berkley	12.88%	20.83%	4.27%

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of AXS or WRB?

93.4% of AXIS Capital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.8% of W. R. Berkley shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of AXIS Capital shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.0% of W. R. Berkley shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AXS or WRB?

AXIS Capital received 43 more outperform votes than W. R. Berkley when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 54.89% of users gave AXIS Capital an outperform vote while only 50.60% of users gave W. R. Berkley an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AXIS Capital	Outperform Votes 382 54.89%	Underperform Votes 314 45.11%
W. R. Berkley	Outperform Votes 339 50.60%	Underperform Votes 331 49.40%

Do analysts rate AXS or WRB?

AXIS Capital presently has a consensus price target of $106.75, suggesting a potential upside of 12.75%. W. R. Berkley has a consensus price target of $66.59, suggesting a potential downside of 2.94%. Given AXIS Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe AXIS Capital is more favorable than W. R. Berkley.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AXIS Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
W. R. Berkley	1 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.23

Which has more risk and volatility, AXS or WRB?

AXIS Capital has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W. R. Berkley has a beta of 0.4, indicating that its share price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better valuation & earnings, AXS or WRB?

W. R. Berkley has higher revenue and earnings than AXIS Capital. AXIS Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than W. R. Berkley, 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
AXIS Capital	$6.02B	1.24	$1.08B	$12.35	7.67
W. R. Berkley	$13.69B	1.90	$1.76B	$4.36	15.74

Does the media favor AXS or WRB?

In the previous week, W. R. Berkley had 16 more articles in the media than AXIS Capital. MarketBeat recorded 38 mentions for W. R. Berkley and 22 mentions for AXIS Capital. W. R. Berkley's average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat AXIS Capital's score of 0.94 indicating that W. R. Berkley is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
AXIS Capital	11 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
W. R. Berkley	20 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

W. R. Berkley beats AXIS Capital on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.