Goosehead Insurance (NASDAQ:GSHD) & Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) Critical Comparison

Goosehead Insurance (NASDAQ:GSHD) and Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Goosehead Insurance and Assurant’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Goosehead Insurance	7.62%	-21.31%	7.79%
Assurant	6.81%	18.65%	2.92%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Goosehead Insurance and Assurant”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Goosehead Insurance	$365.30 million	5.16	$27.83 million	$1.04	49.17
Assurant	$12.81 billion	0.87	$872.70 million	$16.97	13.20

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of Assurant shares are held by institutional investors. 48.4% of Goosehead Insurance shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Assurant shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Goosehead Insurance has a beta of 1.54, meaning that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assurant has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Goosehead Insurance and Assurant, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Goosehead Insurance	0	5	7	0	2.58
Assurant	0	2	8	0	2.80

Goosehead Insurance presently has a consensus target price of $80.78, indicating a potential upside of 57.95%. Assurant has a consensus target price of $258.17, indicating a potential upside of 15.22%. Given Goosehead Insurance’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Goosehead Insurance is more favorable than Assurant.

About Goosehead Insurance

Goosehead Insurance, Inc. operates as a holding company for Goosehead Financial, LLC that engages in the provision of personal lines insurance agency services in the United States. The company offers homeowner’s, automotive, dwelling property, flood, wind, earthquake, excess liability or umbrella, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, general liability, property, and life insurance products and services. As of December 31, 2023, it operated 1,415 franchise locations. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.

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.