Head to Head Comparison: Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) versus Old Republic International (NYSE:ORI)

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) and Old Republic International (NYSE:ORI) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Assurant and Old Republic International”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Assurant	$12.81 billion	0.89	$872.70 million	$16.97	13.54
Old Republic International	$9.14 billion	1.16	$935.40 million	$3.39	12.66

Old Republic International has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Assurant. Old Republic International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Assurant, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Assurant and Old Republic International, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assurant	0	2	8	0	2.80
Old Republic International	1	1	1	1	2.50

Assurant presently has a consensus target price of $258.17, indicating a potential upside of 12.37%. Old Republic International has a consensus target price of $42.50, indicating a potential downside of 0.95%. Given Assurant’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Assurant is more favorable than Old Republic International.

Profitability

This table compares Assurant and Old Republic International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assurant	6.81%	18.65%	2.92%
Old Republic International	10.24%	16.21%	3.38%

Risk and Volatility

Assurant has a beta of 0.58, suggesting that its share price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Old Republic International has a beta of 0.73, suggesting that its share price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.7% of Assurant shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.9% of Old Republic International shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Assurant shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Old Republic International shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Assurant pays an annual dividend of $3.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Old Republic International pays an annual dividend of $1.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Assurant pays out 20.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Old Republic International pays out 34.2% 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. Assurant has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years and Old Republic International has raised its dividend for 45 consecutive years. Old Republic International is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

About Assurant

Assurant, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services. The Global Housing segment provides lender-placed homeowners, manufactured housing, and flood insurance; renters insurance and related products; and voluntary manufactured housing, and condominium and homeowners insurance products. The company was formerly known as Fortis, Inc. and changed its name to Assurant, Inc. in February 2004. Assurant, Inc. was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Old Republic International

Old Republic International Corporation, through its subsidiaries, engages in the insurance underwriting and related services business primarily in the United States and Canada. It operates through three segments: General Insurance, Title Insurance, and Republic Financial Indemnity Group Run-off Business. The General Insurance segment offers aviation, commercial auto, commercial multi-peril, commercial property, general liability, home and auto warranty, inland marine, travel accident, and workers' compensation insurance products; and financial indemnity products for specialty coverages, including errors and omissions, fidelity, directors and officers, and surety. This segment provides its insurance products to businesses, state and local government, and other institutions in transportation, commercial construction, healthcare, education, retail and wholesale trade, forest products, energy, general manufacturing, and financial services industries. The Title Insurance segment offers lenders' and owners' policies to real estate purchasers and investors based upon searches of the public records. This segment also provides escrow closing and construction disbursement services; and real estate information products, national default management services, and various other services pertaining to real estate transfers and loan transactions. The Republic Financial Indemnity Group Run-off Business segment offers private mortgage insurance coverage that protects mortgage lenders and investors from default related losses on residential mortgage loans made primarily to homebuyers. Old Republic International Corporation was founded in 1923 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.