Head to Head Contrast: Fidelis Insurance (NYSE:FIHL) & HCI Group (NYSE:HCI)

HCI Group (NYSE:HCI) and Fidelis Insurance (NYSE:FIHL) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares HCI Group and Fidelis Insurance”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HCI Group	$900.95 million	2.57	$299.01 million	$24.75	7.51
Fidelis Insurance	$2.17 billion	1.23	$225.50 million	$2.21	12.55

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCI Group	33.48%	28.09%	12.51%
Fidelis Insurance	9.02%	8.62%	1.62%

Volatility and Risk

HCI Group has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fidelis Insurance has a beta of 0.36, meaning that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

HCI Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Fidelis Insurance pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. HCI Group pays out 6.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fidelis Insurance pays out 27.1% 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.

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCI Group	0	1	5	1	3.00
Fidelis Insurance	2	2	3	0	2.14

HCI Group presently has a consensus target price of $250.00, suggesting a potential upside of 34.46%. Fidelis Insurance has a consensus target price of $21.92, suggesting a potential downside of 20.96%. Given HCI Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe HCI Group is more favorable than Fidelis Insurance.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.0% of HCI Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.0% of Fidelis Insurance shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.5% of HCI Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

HCI Group beats Fidelis Insurance on 14 of the 17 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 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.