AMERISAFE (AMSF) Competitors

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

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of EIG or AMSF?

80.5% of Employers shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.4% of AMERISAFE shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Employers shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of AMERISAFE shares are owned 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.

Which has better earnings and valuation, EIG or AMSF?

Employers has higher revenue and earnings than AMERISAFE. Employers 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
Employers	$880.70M	1.30	$118.60M	$4.12	11.59
AMERISAFE	$309.04M	2.70	$55.44M	$2.48	17.67

Is EIG or AMSF a better dividend stock?

Employers pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. AMERISAFE pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Employers pays out 31.1% 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. Employers has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years and AMERISAFE has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. AMERISAFE is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Do analysts rate EIG or AMSF?

Employers currently has a consensus price target of $58.00, suggesting a potential upside of 21.42%. AMERISAFE has a consensus price target of $59.50, suggesting a potential upside of 35.75%. Given AMERISAFE's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AMERISAFE is more favorable than Employers.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Employers	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
AMERISAFE	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Is EIG or AMSF more profitable?

AMERISAFE has a net margin of 15.76% compared to Employers' net margin of 11.99%. AMERISAFE's return on equity of 16.41% beat Employers' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Employers	11.99%	9.21%	2.75%
AMERISAFE	15.76%	16.41%	3.87%

Which has more risk & volatility, EIG or AMSF?

Employers has a beta of 0.54, suggesting that its stock price is 46% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AMERISAFE has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer EIG or AMSF?

In the previous week, AMERISAFE had 4 more articles in the media than Employers. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for AMERISAFE and 1 mentions for Employers. AMERISAFE's average media sentiment score of 0.37 beat Employers' score of 0.00 indicating that AMERISAFE is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Employers	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
AMERISAFE	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Summary

AMERISAFE beats Employers on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.