First American Financial (FAF) Competitors

First American Financial (NYSE:FAF) and Erie Indemnity (NASDAQ:ERIE) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, media sentiment, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Is FAF or ERIE a better dividend stock?

First American Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Erie Indemnity pays an annual dividend of $5.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. First American Financial pays out 101.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Erie Indemnity pays out 55.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Do analysts recommend FAF or ERIE?

First American Financial presently has a consensus price target of $64.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.94%. Given First American Financial's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe First American Financial is more favorable than Erie Indemnity.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First American Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
Erie Indemnity	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	N/A

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in FAF or ERIE?

First American Financial received 37 more outperform votes than Erie Indemnity when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 63.59% of users gave Erie Indemnity an outperform vote while only 60.70% of users gave First American Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
First American Financial	Outperform Votes 278 60.70%	Underperform Votes 180 39.30%
Erie Indemnity	Outperform Votes 241 63.59%	Underperform Votes 138 36.41%

Does the media favor FAF or ERIE?

In the previous week, First American Financial had 2 more articles in the media than Erie Indemnity. MarketBeat recorded 12 mentions for First American Financial and 10 mentions for Erie Indemnity. First American Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.75 beat Erie Indemnity's score of 0.35 indicating that First American Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
First American Financial	3 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Erie Indemnity	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is FAF or ERIE more profitable?

Erie Indemnity has a net margin of 14.26% compared to First American Financial's net margin of 3.28%. Erie Indemnity's return on equity of 29.60% beat First American Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First American Financial	3.28%	8.02%	2.47%
Erie Indemnity	14.26%	29.60%	19.88%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, FAF or ERIE?

Erie Indemnity has lower revenue, but higher earnings than First American Financial. First American Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Erie Indemnity, 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
First American Financial	$5.94B	1.04	$216.80M	$2.09	28.59
Erie Indemnity	$3.46B	6.36	$446.06M	$9.26	45.51

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of FAF or ERIE?

89.1% of First American Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.7% of Erie Indemnity shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.7% of First American Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 45.8% of Erie Indemnity shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility & risk, FAF or ERIE?

First American Financial has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Erie Indemnity has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Erie Indemnity beats First American Financial on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.