HCI Group (HCI) Competitors

HCI Group (NYSE:HCI) and Selective Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SIGI) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, profitability, community ranking, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Is HCI or SIGI more profitable?

HCI Group has a net margin of 19.37% compared to Selective Insurance Group's net margin of 4.26%. HCI Group's return on equity of 34.17% beat Selective Insurance Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCI Group	19.37%	34.17%	7.44%
Selective Insurance Group	4.26%	7.33%	1.62%

Do analysts recommend HCI or SIGI?

HCI Group currently has a consensus price target of $140.00, indicating a potential downside of 5.58%. Selective Insurance Group has a consensus price target of $98.71, indicating a potential upside of 7.04%. Given Selective Insurance Group's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Selective Insurance Group is more favorable than HCI Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCI Group	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75
Selective Insurance Group	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.13

Does the media favor HCI or SIGI?

In the previous week, Selective Insurance Group had 1 more articles in the media than HCI Group. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Selective Insurance Group and 7 mentions for HCI Group. Selective Insurance Group's average media sentiment score of 1.69 beat HCI Group's score of 1.03 indicating that Selective Insurance Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
HCI Group	5 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Selective Insurance Group	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has higher valuation and earnings, HCI or SIGI?

Selective Insurance Group has higher revenue and earnings than HCI Group. HCI Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Selective Insurance 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
HCI Group	$749.45M	2.13	$79.03M	$8.80	16.85
Selective Insurance Group	$4.86B	1.15	$207.01M	$3.22	28.64

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HCI or SIGI?

Selective Insurance Group received 61 more outperform votes than HCI Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 61.85% of users gave HCI Group an outperform vote while only 59.65% of users gave Selective Insurance Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
HCI Group	Outperform Votes 248 61.85%	Underperform Votes 153 38.15%
Selective Insurance Group	Outperform Votes 309 59.65%	Underperform Votes 209 40.35%

Which has more risk & volatility, HCI or SIGI?

HCI Group has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Selective Insurance Group has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is HCI or SIGI a better dividend stock?

HCI Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Selective Insurance Group pays an annual dividend of $1.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. HCI Group pays out 18.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Selective Insurance Group pays out 47.2% 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 and insiders have more ownership in HCI or SIGI?

87.0% of HCI Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.9% of Selective Insurance Group shares are held by institutional investors. 21.0% of HCI Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Selective Insurance Group shares are held by company 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.

Summary

HCI Group beats Selective Insurance Group on 12 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.