Hilltop (HTH) Competitors

Hilltop (NYSE:HTH) and AXIS Capital (NYSE:AXS) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, community ranking, analyst recommendations, risk and media sentiment.

Is HTH or AXS more profitable?

AXIS Capital has a net margin of 18.16% compared to Hilltop's net margin of 7.04%. AXIS Capital's return on equity of 18.89% beat Hilltop's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hilltop	7.04%	5.18%	0.71%
AXIS Capital	18.16%	18.89%	3.05%

Do institutionals & insiders believe in HTH or AXS?

57.1% of Hilltop shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.4% of AXIS Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 29.9% of Hilltop shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of AXIS Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts prefer HTH or AXS?

Hilltop currently has a consensus price target of $33.00, indicating a potential upside of 9.53%. AXIS Capital has a consensus price target of $107.75, indicating a potential upside of 6.87%. Given Hilltop's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Hilltop is more favorable than AXIS Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hilltop	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
AXIS Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.70

Is HTH or AXS a better dividend stock?

Hilltop pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. AXIS Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Hilltop pays out 36.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AXIS Capital pays out 17.5% 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. Hilltop has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years. Hilltop is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in HTH or AXS?

AXIS Capital received 141 more outperform votes than Hilltop when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 54.86% of users gave AXIS Capital an outperform vote while only 52.48% of users gave Hilltop an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Hilltop	Outperform Votes 243 52.48%	Underperform Votes 220 47.52%
AXIS Capital	Outperform Votes 384 54.86%	Underperform Votes 316 45.14%

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, HTH or AXS?

AXIS Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Hilltop. AXIS Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Hilltop, 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
Hilltop	$1.16B	1.67	$113.21M	$1.97	15.29
AXIS Capital	$6.04B	1.31	$1.08B	$10.08	10.00

Does the media prefer HTH or AXS?

In the previous week, AXIS Capital had 10 more articles in the media than Hilltop. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for AXIS Capital and 10 mentions for Hilltop. Hilltop's average media sentiment score of 1.55 beat AXIS Capital's score of 0.95 indicating that Hilltop is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Hilltop	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive
AXIS Capital	11 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, HTH or AXS?

Hilltop has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AXIS Capital has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

AXIS Capital beats Hilltop on 13 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.