Essent Group (ESNT) Competitors

Essent Group (NYSE:ESNT) and MGIC Investment (NYSE:MTG) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, community ranking, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor ESNT or MTG?

MGIC Investment received 49 more outperform votes than Essent Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.27% of users gave MGIC Investment an outperform vote while only 65.75% of users gave Essent Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Essent Group	Outperform Votes 432 65.75%	Underperform Votes 225 34.25%
MGIC Investment	Outperform Votes 481 67.27%	Underperform Votes 234 32.73%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, ESNT or MTG?

MGIC Investment has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Essent Group. MGIC Investment is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Essent Group, 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	$1.16B	5.22	$696.39M	$6.61	8.60
MGIC Investment	$1.16B	4.89	$712.95M	$2.60	8.15

Do insiders & institutionals believe in ESNT or MTG?

93.0% of Essent Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.6% of MGIC Investment shares are held by institutional investors. 2.9% of Essent Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of MGIC Investment shares are held 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.

Is ESNT or MTG more profitable?

MGIC Investment has a net margin of 62.85% compared to Essent Group's net margin of 61.40%. MGIC Investment's return on equity of 15.00% beat Essent Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Essent Group	61.40%	14.24%	11.28%
MGIC Investment	62.85%	15.00%	11.57%

Is ESNT or MTG a better dividend stock?

Essent Group pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. MGIC Investment pays an annual dividend of $0.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Essent Group pays out 16.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MGIC Investment pays out 17.7% 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.

Which has more risk & volatility, ESNT or MTG?

Essent Group has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MGIC Investment has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts rate ESNT or MTG?

Essent Group currently has a consensus target price of $58.75, suggesting a potential upside of 3.38%. MGIC Investment has a consensus target price of $21.08, suggesting a potential downside of 0.50%. Given Essent Group's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Essent Group is more favorable than MGIC Investment.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Essent Group	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.43
MGIC Investment	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Does the media favor ESNT or MTG?

In the previous week, Essent Group had 1 more articles in the media than MGIC Investment. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Essent Group and 6 mentions for MGIC Investment. MGIC Investment's average media sentiment score of 1.08 beat Essent Group's score of 0.76 indicating that MGIC Investment is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Essent Group	4 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
MGIC Investment	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Essent Group and MGIC Investment tied by winning 10 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.