Hagerty (NYSE:HGTY) & Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) Critical Analysis

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

Risk and Volatility

Hagerty has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investors Title has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Hagerty and Investors Title, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hagerty	0	5	4	0	2.44
Investors Title	0	0	1	0	3.00

Hagerty currently has a consensus price target of $13.67, indicating a potential upside of 11.23%. Given Hagerty’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Hagerty is more favorable than Investors Title.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Hagerty and Investors Title”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hagerty	$1.46 billion	2.90	$49.02 million	$0.20	61.44
Investors Title	$272.76 million	1.93	$35.18 million	$20.10	13.87

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

20.5% of Hagerty shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.4% of Investors Title shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of Hagerty shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 26.0% of Investors Title shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hagerty	5.11%	11.94%	3.61%
Investors Title	13.59%	14.03%	10.62%

About Hagerty

Hagerty, Inc. provides insurance agency services worldwide. It offers motor vehicle and boat insurance products; and reinsurance products. The company provides Hagerty Media, which publishes contents through the Hagerty Drivers Club Magazine (HDC), video content, and social media channels; HDC that offers subscription based products and services, including HDC Magazine, automotive enthusiast events, proprietary vehicle valuation tools, emergency roadside services, and special vehicle-related discounts. In addition, it offers HVT, a valuation tool used by the customer to access current and historic pricing data of collector vehicle models. Further, the company offers Hagerty Garage + Social, a platform that provides clubhouses and car storage facilities. Hagerty, Inc. is headquartered in Traverse City, Michigan.

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.