Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) versus Loews (NYSE:L) Critical Contrast

Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) and Loews (NYSE:L) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

81.2% of Fidelity National Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.3% of Loews shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.7% of Fidelity National Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.0% of Loews shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and Loews”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fidelity National Financial	$14.45 billion	0.90	$602.00 million	$2.74	17.57
Loews	$18.45 billion	1.19	$1.67 billion	$7.87	13.58

Loews has higher revenue and earnings than Fidelity National Financial. Loews is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fidelity National Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Fidelity National Financial and Loews, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fidelity National Financial	1	2	2	0	2.20
Loews	0	0	0	1	4.00

Fidelity National Financial currently has a consensus target price of $56.25, suggesting a potential upside of 16.83%. Given Fidelity National Financial’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Fidelity National Financial is more favorable than Loews.

Profitability

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and Loews’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fidelity National Financial	5.10%	15.49%	1.29%
Loews	8.83%	8.51%	1.91%

Risk and Volatility

Fidelity National Financial has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Loews has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Fidelity National Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.3%. Loews pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Fidelity National Financial pays out 75.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Loews pays out 3.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fidelity National Financial has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Fidelity National Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Loews beats Fidelity National Financial on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fidelity National Financial

Fidelity National Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various insurance products in the United States. The company operates through Title, F&G, and Corporate and Other segments. It offers title insurance, escrow, and other title related services, including trust activities, trustee sales guarantees, recordings and reconveyances, and home warranty products. The company also provides technology and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries; and mortgage transaction services, including title-related services and facilitation of production and management of mortgage loans. In addition, it offers annuity and life insurance products, such as deferred and immediate annuities, as well as indexed universal life insurance products; and funding agreements and pension risk transfer (PRT) solutions. Further, the company engages in the real estate brokerage business. Fidelity National Financial, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

About Loews

Loews Corporation provides commercial property and casualty insurance in the United States and internationally. The company offers specialty insurance products, such as management and professional liability, and other coverage products; surety and fidelity bonds; property insurance products that include standard and excess property, marine and boiler, and machinery coverages; and casualty insurance products, such as workers' compensation, general and product liability, and commercial auto, surplus, and umbrella coverages. It also provides loss-sensitive insurance programs; and warranty, risk management, information, and claims administration services. The company markets its insurance products and services through independent agents, brokers, and managing general underwriters. In addition, the company is involved in the transportation and storage of natural gas and natural gas liquids, and hydrocarbons through natural gas pipelines covering approximately 13,455 miles of interconnected pipelines; 855 miles of NGL pipelines in Louisiana and Texas; 14 underground storage fields with an aggregate gas capacity of approximately 199.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas; and eleven salt dome caverns and related brine infrastructure for providing brine supply services. Further, the company operates a chain of 25 hotels; and develops, manufactures, and markets a range of extrusion blow-molded and injection molded plastic containers for customers in the pharmaceutical, dairy, household chemicals, food/nutraceuticals, industrial/specialty chemicals, and water and beverage/juice industries, as well as manufactures commodity and differentiated plastic resins from recycled plastic materials. Loews Corporation was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in New York, New York.