Head-To-Head Comparison: James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) versus Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO)

James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) and Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares James River Group and Assured Guaranty”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	0.44	-$81.12 million	($2.08)	-3.23
Assured Guaranty	$872.00 million	4.49	$376.00 million	$8.06	10.53

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for James River Group and Assured Guaranty, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
James River Group	1	5	1	0	2.00
Assured Guaranty	0	2	2	0	2.50

James River Group presently has a consensus price target of $6.40, suggesting a potential downside of 4.62%. Assured Guaranty has a consensus price target of $101.00, suggesting a potential upside of 19.01%. Given Assured Guaranty’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Assured Guaranty is more favorable than James River Group.

Volatility and Risk

James River Group has a beta of -0.04, indicating that its stock price is 104% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assured Guaranty has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

95.2% of James River Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by institutional investors. 33.8% of James River Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.1% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

James River Group pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Assured Guaranty pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. James River Group pays out -1.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Assured Guaranty pays out 16.9% 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. Assured Guaranty has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years. Assured Guaranty is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares James River Group and Assured Guaranty’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%
Assured Guaranty	40.65%	7.09%	3.35%

Summary

Assured Guaranty beats James River Group on 13 of the 17 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 Assured Guaranty

Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments. It insures and reinsures various debt obligations, including bonds issued by the United States state governmental authorities; and notes issued to finance infrastructure projects. In addition, the company insures and reinsures various the U.S. public finance obligations, such as general obligation, tax-backed, municipal utility, transportation, healthcare, higher education, infrastructure, housing revenue, investor-owned utility, renewable energy, and other public finance bonds. Further, the company involved in insuring and reinsuring of non-U.S. public finance obligations comprising regulated utilities, infrastructure finance, sovereign and sub-sovereign, renewable energy bonds, pooled infrastructure, and other public finance obligations; and the U.S. and non-U.S. Structured finance obligations, including residential mortgage-backed securities, life insurance transactions, consumer receivables securities, subscription finance facilities, pooled corporate obligations, and financial products. Additionally, it offers specialty business, such as real estate properties, insurance securitizations, and aircraft residual value insurance (RVI) transactions; and asset management services comprising investment advisory services. It markets its financial guaranty insurance directly to issuers and underwriters of public finance and structured finance securities, as well as to investors in such obligations. Assured Guaranty Ltd. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.