Essent Group (ESNT) Competitors

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) and Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in ESNT or FITB?

93.0% of Essent Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.8% of Fifth Third Bancorp shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of Essent Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Fifth Third Bancorp 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.

Which has more risk & volatility, ESNT or FITB?

Essent Group has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fifth Third Bancorp has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is ESNT or FITB more profitable?

Essent Group has a net margin of 57.29% compared to Fifth Third Bancorp's net margin of 17.65%. Fifth Third Bancorp's return on equity of 13.64% beat Essent Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essent Group	57.29%	12.98%	10.28%
Fifth Third Bancorp	17.65%	13.64%	1.14%

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, ESNT or FITB?

Fifth Third Bancorp has higher revenue and earnings than Essent Group. Essent Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fifth Third Bancorp, 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
Essent Group	$1.24B	5.05	$729.40M	$6.83	9.06
Fifth Third Bancorp	$13.28B	2.18	$2.31B	$3.15	13.77

Does the media favor ESNT or FITB?

In the previous week, Fifth Third Bancorp had 13 more articles in the media than Essent Group. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Fifth Third Bancorp and 7 mentions for Essent Group. Essent Group's average media sentiment score of 0.93 beat Fifth Third Bancorp's score of 0.90 indicating that Essent Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Essent Group	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Fifth Third Bancorp	13 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts rate ESNT or FITB?

Essent Group presently has a consensus target price of $63.29, suggesting a potential upside of 2.24%. Fifth Third Bancorp has a consensus target price of $47.53, suggesting a potential upside of 9.59%. Given Fifth Third Bancorp's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Fifth Third Bancorp is more favorable than Essent Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essent Group	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.71
Fifth Third Bancorp	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.84

Is ESNT or FITB a better dividend stock?

Essent Group pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Fifth Third Bancorp pays an annual dividend of $1.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Essent Group pays out 18.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fifth Third Bancorp pays out 47.0% 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. Essent Group has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years and Fifth Third Bancorp has raised its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Fifth Third Bancorp is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Fifth Third Bancorp beats Essent Group on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.