Financial Survey: Zurich Insurance Group (OTCMKTS:ZURVY) and Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU)

Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU) and Zurich Insurance Group (OTCMKTS:ZURVY) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

56.8% of Prudential Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Zurich Insurance Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Prudential Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.0% of Zurich Insurance Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Prudential Financial and Zurich Insurance Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prudential Financial	1	10	1	0	2.00
Zurich Insurance Group	2	1	0	1	2.00

Prudential Financial currently has a consensus price target of $122.27, suggesting a potential upside of 19.98%. Given Prudential Financial’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Prudential Financial is more favorable than Zurich Insurance Group.

Risk and Volatility

Prudential Financial has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Zurich Insurance Group has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Prudential Financial and Zurich Insurance Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Prudential Financial	$68.05 billion	0.53	$2.73 billion	$4.51	22.60
Zurich Insurance Group	$59.51 billion	1.73	$5.81 billion	N/A	N/A

Zurich Insurance Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Prudential Financial.

Profitability

This table compares Prudential Financial and Zurich Insurance Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prudential Financial	2.75%	15.80%	0.64%
Zurich Insurance Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Prudential Financial pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Zurich Insurance Group pays an annual dividend of $1.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Prudential Financial pays out 119.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Prudential Financial has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Prudential Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Prudential Financial beats Zurich Insurance Group on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Prudential Financial

Prudential Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance, investment management, and other financial products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through PGIM, Retirement Strategies, Group Insurance, Individual Life, and International Businesses segments. The PGIM segment offers investment management services and solutions related to public fixed income, public equity, real estate debt and equity, private credit and other alternatives, and multi-asset class strategies to institutional and retail clients, as well as its general account. The Retirement Strategies segment provides a range of retirement investment, and income products and services to retirement plan sponsors in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors; develops and distributes individual variable and fixed annuity products. The Group Insurance segment offers various group life, and long-term and short-term group disability, as well as group corporate-, bank-, and trust-owned life insurance in the United States primarily for institutional clients for use in connection with employee and membership benefits plans; sells accidental death and dismemberment, and other supplemental health solutions; and plan administration services in connection with its insurance coverages. The Individual Life segment develops and distributes variable life, universal life, and term life insurance products. The International Businesses segment develops and distributes life insurance, retirement products, investment products, and certain accident and health products; and advisory services. The company provides its products and services to individual and institutional customers through its proprietary and third-party distribution networks. Prudential Financial, Inc. was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

About Zurich Insurance Group

Zurich Insurance Group AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance products and related services in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through Property & Casualty Regions, Life Regions, Farmers, Group Functions and Operations, and Non-Core Businesses segments. It offers car and motor, home, travel, general liability, life and critical illness, and other insurance products; and saving and investment, and pension and retirement planning products. The company also provides property, casualty, energy and engineering lines, and marine; commercial management liability, financial institutions, and professional indemnity; and cyber, accident and health, and credit lines and surety insurance products, as well as and non-claims and ancillary services to the farmers exchanges. In addition, it offers employee benefit insurance products; and climate resilience, risk engineering, captive, and cyber resilience, as well as climate risk assessment and reinsurance services. The company serves individuals, small businesses, and mid-sized and large companies, as well as multinational corporations. It sells its products through agents, brokers, and bank distribution channels. Zurich Insurance Group AG was founded in 1872 and is based in Zurich, Switzerland.