Reviewing James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) & Allianz (OTCMKTS:ALIZY)

James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) and Allianz (OTCMKTS:ALIZY) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Profitability

This table compares James River Group and Allianz’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
James River Group	-7.64%	7.11%	0.69%
Allianz	5.47%	16.58%	1.01%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for James River Group and Allianz, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
James River Group	1	3	2	1	2.43
Allianz	1	4	0	1	2.17

James River Group presently has a consensus target price of $6.06, suggesting a potential upside of 7.30%. Given James River Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe James River Group is more favorable than Allianz.

Volatility and Risk

James River Group has a beta of 0.03, suggesting that its share price is 97% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Allianz has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.2% of James River Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Allianz shares are owned by institutional investors. 33.8% of James River Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares James River Group and Allianz”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
James River Group	$707.63 million	0.37	-$81.12 million	($2.08)	-2.72
Allianz	$194.56 billion	0.82	$10.75 billion	$3.01	13.79

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

Dividends

James River Group pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Allianz pays an annual dividend of $1.17 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. James River Group pays out -1.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Allianz pays out 38.9% 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.

Summary

Allianz beats James River Group on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About James River Group

James River Group Holdings, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides specialty insurance services. It operates through Excess and Surplus Lines, and Specialty Admitted Insurance segments. The Excess and Surplus Lines segment underwrites liability and property insurance in the United States Puerto Rice, and the United States Virgin Islands. This segment distributes its insurance policies primarily through wholesale insurance brokers. The Specialty Admitted Insurance segment provides insurance for fronting, program administrators, managing general agents, and independent retail agents. James River Group Holdings, Ltd. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.

About Allianz

Allianz SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides property-casualty insurance, life/health insurance, and asset management products and services worldwide. The company’s Property-Casualty segment offers various insurance products, including motor liability and own damage, accident, general liability, fire and property, legal expense, credit, and travel to private and corporate customers. Its Life/Health segment provides a range of life and health insurance products on an individual and a group basis, such as annuities, endowment and term insurance, and unit-linked and investment-oriented products, as well as private and supplemental health, and long-term care insurance products. The company’s Asset Management segment offers institutional and retail asset management products and services to third-party investors comprising equity and fixed income funds, and multi-assets; and alternative investment products that include real estate, infrastructure debt/equity, real assets, liquid alternatives, and solutions. Its Corporate and Other segment provides banking services for retail clients, as well as digital investment services. Allianz SE was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in Munich, Germany.