Employers (EIG) Competitors

Employers (NYSE:EIG) and Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, community ranking, risk and dividends.

Do institutionals & insiders believe in EIG or AGO?

80.5% of Employers shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Employers shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.1% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more risk and volatility, EIG or AGO?

Employers has a beta of 0.27, meaning that its share price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assured Guaranty has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to EIG or AGO?

In the previous week, Assured Guaranty had 3 more articles in the media than Employers. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Assured Guaranty and 1 mentions for Employers. Assured Guaranty's average media sentiment score of 1.33 beat Employers' score of 0.73 indicating that Assured Guaranty is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Employers	Positive
Assured Guaranty	Positive

Do analysts rate EIG or AGO?

Employers currently has a consensus target price of $58.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.42%. Assured Guaranty has a consensus target price of $103.33, indicating a potential upside of 12.60%. Given Employers' higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Employers is more favorable than Assured Guaranty.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Employers	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Assured Guaranty	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Which has higher valuation & earnings, EIG or AGO?

Assured Guaranty has higher revenue and earnings than Employers. Assured Guaranty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Employers, 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
Employers	$850.90M	1.45	$118.10M	$5.34	9.33
Assured Guaranty	$1.37B	3.40	$739M	$12.87	7.13

Is EIG or AGO a better dividend stock?

Employers pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Assured Guaranty pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Employers pays out 22.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Assured Guaranty pays out 9.6% 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.

Is EIG or AGO more profitable?

Assured Guaranty has a net margin of 70.37% compared to Employers' net margin of 15.27%. Assured Guaranty's return on equity of 11.58% beat Employers' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Employers	15.27%	9.78%	2.84%
Assured Guaranty	70.37%	11.58%	5.39%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in EIG or AGO?

Assured Guaranty received 115 more outperform votes than Employers when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.83% of users gave Assured Guaranty an outperform vote while only 62.28% of users gave Employers an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Employers	Outperform Votes 284 62.28%	Underperform Votes 172 37.72%
Assured Guaranty	Outperform Votes 399 66.83%	Underperform Votes 198 33.17%

Summary

Assured Guaranty beats Employers on 17 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.