Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) vs. Corebridge Financial (NYSE:CRBG) Critical Analysis

Corebridge Financial (NYSE:CRBG) and Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Corebridge Financial and Crawford & Company’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Corebridge Financial	4.37%	17.37%	0.52%
Crawford & Company	1.81%	28.15%	6.51%

Dividends

Corebridge Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Crawford & Company pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Corebridge Financial pays out 58.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crawford & Company pays out 68.1% 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. Corebridge Financial has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Corebridge Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Corebridge Financial and Crawford & Company, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Corebridge Financial	0	5	9	0	2.64
Crawford & Company	0	0	1	0	3.00

Corebridge Financial currently has a consensus target price of $39.00, indicating a potential upside of 10.48%. Crawford & Company has a consensus target price of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.29%. Given Crawford & Company’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Crawford & Company is more favorable than Corebridge Financial.

Volatility & Risk

Corebridge Financial has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crawford & Company has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Corebridge Financial and Crawford & Company”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Corebridge Financial	$20.46 billion	0.77	-$366.00 million	$1.71	20.64
Crawford & Company	$1.30 billion	0.47	$19.63 million	$0.47	26.77

Crawford & Company has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Corebridge Financial. Corebridge Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crawford & Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.3% of Corebridge Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 22.5% of Crawford & Company shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Corebridge Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 54.3% of Crawford & Company shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Corebridge Financial beats Crawford & Company on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Corebridge Financial

Corebridge Financial, Inc. provides retirement solutions and insurance products in the United States. The company operates through Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Life Insurance, and Institutional Markets segments. The Individual Retirement segment provides fixed annuities, fixed index annuities, variable annuities, and retail mutual funds. The Group Retirement segment offers record-keeping services, plan administration and compliance services, and financial planning and advisory solutions to employer-defined contribution plans and their participants, as well as proprietary and non-proprietary annuities, advisory services, and brokerage products. The Life Insurance segment offers term life and universal life insurance in the United States, as well as issues individual life, whole life, and group life insurance in the United Kingdom; and distributes medical insurance in Ireland. The Institutional Markets segment provides stable value wraps, structured settlement and pension risk transfer annuities, corporate and bank owned life insurance, private placement variable universal life and annuities products, and guaranteed investment contracts. The company was formerly known as SAFG Retirement Services, Inc. Corebridge Financial, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company operates as a subsidiary of American International Group, Inc.

About Crawford & Company

Crawford & Company provides claims management and outsourcing solutions to the risk management and insurance industry, and self-insured entities. The company's Crawford Claims Solutions segment offers claims management services related to property, casualty, and catastrophe losses caused by physical damage to commercial and residential real properties, and personal properties, as well as marine losses. It also offers services in the areas of field investigation, catastrophe, evaluation, and resolution of property and casualty insurance claims; and various on-demand inspection, verification, and other task specific field services for businesses and consumers through a mobile platform. Its Crawford TPA Solutions segment provides claims and risk management services; desktop claim adjusting and claims evaluation services; initial loss reporting services for claimants; loss mitigation services, such as medical bill review and case management, and vocational rehabilitation services; and risk management information services, as well as administers trust funds established to pay claims. It offers services for workers' compensation, auto and liability, disability absence and medical management, and accident and health markets. The company's Crawford Specialty Solutions segment offers claims management services related to large and complex losses in various industries, such as commercial property, aviation, forensic accounting, marine and transportation, retail, building and construction, cyber, and energy. It also provides a customer-centric solution for various loss types comprising high-frequency and low-complexity claims, and large complex repairs; and outsourced contractor management services to personal and commercial insurance carriers, and consumer markets. The company operates in the United States, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, Canada, Australia, and internationally. Crawford & Company was founded in 1941 and is based in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.