Financial Contrast: Kinsale Capital Group (NYSE:KNSL) & Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC)

Kinsale Capital Group (NYSE:KNSL) and Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Kinsale Capital Group pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Investors Title pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Kinsale Capital Group pays out 3.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Investors Title pays out 10.5% 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. Kinsale Capital Group has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Volatility & Risk

Kinsale Capital Group has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investors Title has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Kinsale Capital Group and Investors Title, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kinsale Capital Group	0	7	4	0	2.36
Investors Title	0	0	0	0	0.00

Kinsale Capital Group currently has a consensus target price of $505.80, indicating a potential upside of 18.13%. Given Kinsale Capital Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Kinsale Capital Group is more favorable than Investors Title.

Profitability

This table compares Kinsale Capital Group and Investors Title’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kinsale Capital Group	25.92%	25.93%	7.92%
Investors Title	12.28%	12.70%	9.71%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

85.4% of Kinsale Capital Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.4% of Investors Title shares are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of Kinsale Capital Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 26.4% of Investors Title shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Kinsale Capital Group and Investors Title”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kinsale Capital Group	$1.59 billion	6.28	$414.84 million	$19.17	22.33
Investors Title	$258.30 million	1.86	$31.07 million	$17.48	14.54

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

Summary

Kinsale Capital Group beats Investors Title on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kinsale Capital Group

Kinsale Capital Group, Inc., a specialty insurance company, engages in the provision of property and casualty insurance products in the United States. The company’s commercial lines offerings include commercial property, small business casualty and property, excess and general casualty, construction, allied health, life sciences, entertainment, energy, environmental, excess professional, health care, public entity, commercial auto, inland marine, aviation, ocean marine, product recall, and railroad, as well as product, professional, and management liability insurance. It markets and sells its insurance products in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands primarily through a network of independent insurance brokers. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.

About Investors Title

Investors Title Company engages in the issuance of residential and commercial title insurance for residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial properties. The company underwrites land title insurance for owners and mortgagees as a primary insurer; and assumes the reinsurance of title insurance risks from other title insurance companies. It offers services in connection with tax-deferred exchanges of like-kind property; acts as a qualified intermediary in tax-deferred exchanges of property; coordinates the exchange aspects of the real estate transaction, such as drafting standard exchange documents, holding the exchange funds between the sale of the old property and the purchase of the new property, and accepting the formal identification of the replacement property. In addition, it serves as an exchange accommodation titleholder for accomplishing reverse exchanges when the taxpayers decide to acquire replacement property before selling the relinquished property. Further, the company offers investment management and trust services to individuals, companies, banks, and trusts; and consulting and management services to clients to start and operate a title insurance agency. It issues title insurance policies directly and through a network of agents in 22 states and the District of Columbia, primarily in the eastern half of the United States. Investors Title Company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.