AMERISAFE (AMSF) Competitors

HCI Group (NYSE:HCI) and AMERISAFE (NASDAQ:AMSF) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability, media sentiment, analyst recommendations and risk.

Which has better earnings and valuation, HCI or AMSF?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HCI Group	$760.09M	2.41	$79.03M	$10.34	15.35
AMERISAFE	$301.22M	2.86	$62.11M	$2.48	18.25

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of HCI or AMSF?

87.0% of HCI Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of AMERISAFE shares are held by institutional investors. 21.9% of HCI Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of AMERISAFE shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is HCI or AMSF a better dividend stock?

HCI Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. AMERISAFE pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. HCI Group pays out 15.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AMERISAFE pays out 62.9% 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. AMERISAFE has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. AMERISAFE is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HCI or AMSF?

HCI Group received 24 more outperform votes than AMERISAFE when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.13% of users gave HCI Group an outperform vote while only 57.04% of users gave AMERISAFE an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
HCI Group	Outperform Votes 251 62.13%	Underperform Votes 153 37.87%
AMERISAFE	Outperform Votes 227 57.04%	Underperform Votes 171 42.96%

Is HCI or AMSF more profitable?

AMERISAFE has a net margin of 19.49% compared to HCI Group's net margin of 19.37%. HCI Group's return on equity of 34.17% beat AMERISAFE's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCI Group	19.37%	34.17%	7.44%
AMERISAFE	19.49%	16.50%	4.02%

Do analysts recommend HCI or AMSF?

HCI Group currently has a consensus price target of $181.25, suggesting a potential upside of 14.23%. AMERISAFE has a consensus price target of $59.50, suggesting a potential upside of 31.49%. Given AMERISAFE's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe AMERISAFE is more favorable than HCI Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCI Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
AMERISAFE	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the media refer more to HCI or AMSF?

In the previous week, AMERISAFE had 3 more articles in the media than HCI Group. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for AMERISAFE and 3 mentions for HCI Group. AMERISAFE's average media sentiment score of 1.24 beat HCI Group's score of 0.84 indicating that AMERISAFE is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
HCI Group	1 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
AMERISAFE	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk and volatility, HCI or AMSF?

HCI Group has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AMERISAFE has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its share price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

HCI Group beats AMERISAFE on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.