Head-To-Head Review: Prudential Public (NYSE:PUK) & James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR)

Prudential Public (NYSE:PUK) and James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) are both 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

1.9% of Prudential Public shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.2% of James River Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Prudential Public shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 33.8% of James River 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 Public and James River Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prudential Public	0	3	4	0	2.57
James River Group	0	4	1	0	2.20

James River Group has a consensus price target of $7.25, suggesting a potential upside of 14.17%. Given James River Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe James River Group is more favorable than Prudential Public.

Risk and Volatility

Prudential Public has a beta of 0.73, meaning that its share price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, James River Group has a beta of -0.02, meaning that its share price is 102% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Prudential Public and James River Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Prudential Public	$27.76 billion	1.40	$3.98 billion	N/A	N/A
James River Group	$687.61 million	0.42	$47.43 million	$0.73	8.70

Prudential Public has higher revenue and earnings than James River Group.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prudential Public	N/A	N/A	N/A
James River Group	6.90%	12.01%	1.23%

Dividends

Prudential Public pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. James River Group pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. James River Group pays out 5.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Prudential Public beats James River Group on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Prudential Public

Prudential plc, through its subsidiaries, provides life and health insurance, and asset management solutions to individuals in Asia and Africa. The company was founded in 1848 and is headquartered in Central, Hong Kong.

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.