Kingstone Companies (NASDAQ:KINS) and United Insurance (NASDAQ:UIHC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, profitability, dividends, risk and institutional ownership.
Profitability
This table compares Kingstone Companies and United Insurance's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
---|
Kingstone Companies | -0.47% | -0.01% | N/A |
United Insurance | -8.66% | -15.79% | -3.03% |
Insider and Institutional Ownership
37.1% of Kingstone Companies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.1% of United Insurance shares are held by institutional investors. 8.1% of Kingstone Companies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 53.1% of United Insurance shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Kingstone Companies and United Insurance, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
---|
Kingstone Companies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
United Insurance | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
United Insurance has a consensus price target of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.42%. Given United Insurance's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe United Insurance is more favorable than Kingstone Companies.
Dividends
Kingstone Companies pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. United Insurance pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Kingstone Companies pays out -18.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. United Insurance pays out -22.2% 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. Kingstone Companies has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and United Insurance has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. United Insurance is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Kingstone Companies and United Insurance's top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
---|
Kingstone Companies | $145.56 million | 0.63 | $-5,970,000.00 | ($0.89) | -9.62 |
United Insurance | $825.12 million | 0.37 | $-29,870,000.00 | ($1.08) | -6.65 |
Kingstone Companies has higher earnings, but lower revenue than United Insurance. Kingstone Companies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United Insurance, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Risk and Volatility
Kingstone Companies has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Insurance has a beta of 0.75, meaning that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Kingstone Companies beats United Insurance on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.