AGO vs. FCFS, ORI, RDN, MTG, ESNT, NMIH, OZK, EEFT, JXN, and ONB
Should you be buying Assured Guaranty stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Assured Guaranty include FirstCash (FCFS), Old Republic International (ORI), Radian Group (RDN), MGIC Investment (MTG), Essent Group (ESNT), NMI (NMIH), Bank OZK (OZK), Euronet Worldwide (EEFT), Jackson Financial (JXN), and Old National Bancorp (ONB).
FirstCash (NASDAQ:FCFS) and Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, media sentiment, risk, community ranking and earnings.
FirstCash has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assured Guaranty has a beta of 1.13, suggesting that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500.
In the previous week, FirstCash and FirstCash both had 6 articles in the media. Assured Guaranty's average media sentiment score of 0.53 beat FirstCash's score of 0.41 indicating that FirstCash is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Assured Guaranty has a net margin of 53.82% compared to Assured Guaranty's net margin of 6.96%. Assured Guaranty's return on equity of 14.42% beat FirstCash's return on equity.
80.3% of FirstCash shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.1% of FirstCash shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.1% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Assured Guaranty has lower revenue, but higher earnings than FirstCash. Assured Guaranty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than FirstCash, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
FirstCash pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Assured Guaranty pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. FirstCash pays out 29.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Assured Guaranty pays out 10.0% 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. FirstCash has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years and Assured Guaranty has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Assured Guaranty is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
FirstCash presently has a consensus target price of $116.83, indicating a potential downside of 8.08%. Assured Guaranty has a consensus target price of $88.50, indicating a potential upside of 1.25%. Given FirstCash's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Assured Guaranty is more favorable than FirstCash.
Assured Guaranty received 382 more outperform votes than FirstCash when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.92% of users gave Assured Guaranty an outperform vote while only 35.90% of users gave FirstCash an outperform vote.
Summary
Assured Guaranty beats FirstCash on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding AGO and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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