Analyzing Scor (OTCMKTS:SCRYY) & Octave Specialty Group (NYSE:OSG)

Octave Specialty Group (NYSE:OSG) and Scor (OTCMKTS:SCRYY) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Octave Specialty Group has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Scor has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.9% of Octave Specialty Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.2% of Octave Specialty Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Octave Specialty Group and Scor, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Octave Specialty Group	2	1	2	0	2.00
Scor	1	3	2	0	2.17

Octave Specialty Group currently has a consensus target price of $11.50, indicating a potential upside of 150.54%. Given Octave Specialty Group’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Octave Specialty Group is more favorable than Scor.

Profitability

This table compares Octave Specialty Group and Scor’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Octave Specialty Group	-51.10%	0.44%	0.17%
Scor	5.50%	19.18%	2.33%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Octave Specialty Group and Scor”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Octave Specialty Group	$251.22 million	0.82	-$261.69 million	($3.65)	-1.26
Scor	$17.39 billion	0.40	$962.82 million	$0.54	7.10

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

Summary

Scor beats Octave Specialty Group on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Octave Specialty Group

Ambac Financial Group, Inc. operates as a financial services holding company. It operates three businesses: Specialty Property and Casualty Insurance, Insurance Distribution, and Legacy Financial Guarantee (LFG) Insurance. The Specialty Property and Casualty Insurance business provides specialty property and casualty program insurance with a focus commercial and personal liability risks. The Insurance Distribution business includes the specialty property and casualty insurance distribution business, which includes managing general agents and underwriters, insurance wholesalers, brokers, and other distribution businesses. The LFG Insurance business offers financial guarantee insurance policies that provide an unconditional and irrevocable guarantee, which protects the holder of a debt obligation against non-payment when due of the principal and interest on the obligations guaranteed. Ambac Financial Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Scor

SCOR SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides life and non-life reinsurance products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. It operates in two segments, SCOR P&C and SCOR L&H. The SCOR P&C segment offers reinsurance products in the areas of property, motors, casualty treaties, credit and surety, decennial insurance, aviation, marine and energy, engineering, agricultural risks, and property catastrophes; specialties insurance products, including business solutions, political and credit risks, cyber, and environmental liability; and business ventures and partnerships. The SCOR L&H segment provides life reinsurance products, such as protection for mortality, morbidity, behavioral risks, disability, long-term care, critical illness, medical, and personal accident. This segment also provides financial solutions that combine traditional life reinsurance with financial components and provide liquidity, balance sheet, solvency, and income improvements to clients; longevity solutions that include products covering the risk of negative deviation from expected results due to the insured or annuitant living longer than assumed in the pricing of insurance covers provided by insurers or pension funds; and distribution solutions. In addition, it is involved in the asset management business. SCOR SE was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Paris, France.