Fidelis Insurance (NYSE:FIHL – Get Free Report) and Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO – Get Free Report) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability and analyst recommendations.
Volatility and Risk
Fidelis Insurance has a beta of 0.27, suggesting that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assured Guaranty has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings for Fidelis Insurance and Assured Guaranty, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Fidelis Insurance | 1 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 2.30 |
| Assured Guaranty | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2.50 |
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Fidelis Insurance and Assured Guaranty”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Fidelis Insurance | $2.42 billion | 0.87 | $113.30 million | ($0.05) | -380.80 |
| Assured Guaranty | $964.00 million | 4.33 | $376.00 million | $8.06 | 11.23 |
Assured Guaranty has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Fidelis Insurance. Fidelis Insurance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Assured Guaranty, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Dividends
Fidelis Insurance pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Assured Guaranty pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Fidelis Insurance pays out -1,200.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Assured Guaranty pays out 16.9% 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. Assured Guaranty has raised its dividend for 7 consecutive years. Fidelis Insurance is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
82.0% of Fidelis Insurance shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.1% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares Fidelis Insurance and Assured Guaranty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Fidelis Insurance | -0.56% | -0.94% | -0.18% |
| Assured Guaranty | 44.53% | 7.18% | 3.38% |
Summary
Assured Guaranty beats Fidelis Insurance on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Fidelis Insurance
Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited, a specialty insurer, provides insurance and reinsurance solutions in Bermuda, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. It operates in three segments: Specialty, Reinsurance, and Bespoke segments. The Specialty segment offers aviation and aerospace, energy, marine, property direct and facultative, and other specialty risk solutions. The Reinsurance segment provides property, retrocession, and whole account reinsurance solutions. The Bespoke segment offers customized risk solutions for clients that include credit and political risk, as well as other risk transfer opportunities, including political violence and terrorism, limited cyber reinsurance, tax liabilities, title, transactional liabilities, and other bespoke solutions. Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.
About Assured Guaranty
Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments. It insures and reinsures various debt obligations, including bonds issued by the United States state governmental authorities; and notes issued to finance infrastructure projects. In addition, the company insures and reinsures various the U.S. public finance obligations, such as general obligation, tax-backed, municipal utility, transportation, healthcare, higher education, infrastructure, housing revenue, investor-owned utility, renewable energy, and other public finance bonds. Further, the company involved in insuring and reinsuring of non-U.S. public finance obligations comprising regulated utilities, infrastructure finance, sovereign and sub-sovereign, renewable energy bonds, pooled infrastructure, and other public finance obligations; and the U.S. and non-U.S. Structured finance obligations, including residential mortgage-backed securities, life insurance transactions, consumer receivables securities, subscription finance facilities, pooled corporate obligations, and financial products. Additionally, it offers specialty business, such as real estate properties, insurance securitizations, and aircraft residual value insurance (RVI) transactions; and asset management services comprising investment advisory services. It markets its financial guaranty insurance directly to issuers and underwriters of public finance and structured finance securities, as well as to investors in such obligations. Assured Guaranty Ltd. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
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