Financial Contrast: Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) vs. HCI Group (NYSE:HCI)

HCI Group (NYSE:HCI) and Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares HCI Group and Investors Title’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCI Group	18.58%	25.84%	6.58%
Investors Title	12.28%	12.70%	9.71%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares HCI Group and Investors Title”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HCI Group	$816.85 million	2.82	$109.95 million	$15.66	11.35
Investors Title	$273.87 million	1.91	$31.07 million	$19.01	14.61

HCI Group has higher revenue and earnings than Investors Title. HCI Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Investors Title, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

HCI Group has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investors Title has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for HCI Group and Investors Title, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCI Group	0	1	5	1	3.00
Investors Title	0	0	1	0	3.00

HCI Group currently has a consensus price target of $230.00, indicating a potential upside of 29.40%. Given HCI Group’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe HCI Group is more favorable than Investors Title.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

87.0% of HCI Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.4% of Investors Title shares are owned by institutional investors. 21.9% of HCI Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 26.4% of Investors Title shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

HCI Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Investors Title pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. HCI Group pays out 10.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Investors Title pays out 9.7% 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.

Summary

HCI Group beats Investors Title on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HCI Group

HCI Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the property and casualty insurance, insurance management, reinsurance, real estate, and information technology businesses in Florida. It provides residential insurance products, such as homeowners, fire, flood, and wind-only insurance to homeowners, condominium owners, and tenants for properties, as well as offers reinsurance programs. The company also owns and operates waterfront properties and retail shopping centers, and an office building, as well as commercial properties for investment purposes. In addition, it designs and develops web-based applications and products for mobile devices, including SAMS, an online policy administration platform; Harmony, a policy administration platform; ClaimColony, an end-to-end claims management platform; and AtlasViewer, a mapping and data visualization platform. The company was formerly known as Homeowners Choice, Inc. and changed its name to HCI Group, Inc. in May 2013. HCI Group, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.

About Investors Title

Investors Title Company engages in the issuance of residential and commercial title insurance for residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial properties. The company underwrites land title insurance for owners and mortgagees as a primary insurer; and assumes the reinsurance of title insurance risks from other title insurance companies. It offers services in connection with tax-deferred exchanges of like-kind property; acts as a qualified intermediary in tax-deferred exchanges of property; coordinates the exchange aspects of the real estate transaction, such as drafting standard exchange documents, holding the exchange funds between the sale of the old property and the purchase of the new property, and accepting the formal identification of the replacement property. In addition, it serves as an exchange accommodation titleholder for accomplishing reverse exchanges when the taxpayers decide to acquire replacement property before selling the relinquished property. Further, the company offers investment management and trust services to individuals, companies, banks, and trusts; and consulting and management services to clients to start and operate a title insurance agency. It issues title insurance policies directly and through a network of agents in 22 states and the District of Columbia, primarily in the eastern half of the United States. Investors Title Company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.