Critical Survey: National Western Life Group (NASDAQ:NWLI) versus Corebridge Financial (NYSE:CRBG)

National Western Life Group (NASDAQ:NWLI) and Corebridge Financial (NYSE:CRBG) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for National Western Life Group and Corebridge Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
National Western Life Group	0	0	0	0	N/A
Corebridge Financial	0	3	8	0	2.73

Corebridge Financial has a consensus target price of $29.17, suggesting a potential downside of 0.15%. Given Corebridge Financial’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Corebridge Financial is more favorable than National Western Life Group.

Profitability

This table compares National Western Life Group and Corebridge Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
National Western Life Group	13.05%	3.96%	0.74%
Corebridge Financial	11.25%	24.31%	0.74%

Volatility & Risk

National Western Life Group has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Corebridge Financial has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

81.6% of National Western Life Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.3% of Corebridge Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.5% of National Western Life Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Corebridge Financial 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares National Western Life Group and Corebridge Financial’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
National Western Life Group	$703.35 million	2.53	$94.43 million	$26.70	18.34
Corebridge Financial	$19.09 billion	0.95	$1.10 billion	$3.80	7.69

Corebridge Financial has higher revenue and earnings than National Western Life Group. Corebridge Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than National Western Life Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

National Western Life Group pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.1%. Corebridge Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. National Western Life Group pays out 1.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Corebridge Financial pays out 24.2% 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.

Summary

Corebridge Financial beats National Western Life Group on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About National Western Life Group

National Western Life Group, Inc., through its subsidiary, National Western Life Insurance Company, operates as a stock life insurance company in the United States, Brazil, Taiwan, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia, and internationally. It operates through Domestic Life Insurance, International Life Insurance, Annuities, and ONL and Affiliates segments. The company provides life products, including universal life insurance, interest-sensitive whole life, and traditional products, such as term insurance coverage; and annuity products comprising flexible premium and single premium deferred annuities, equity-index annuities, and single premium immediate annuities. It also engages in the real estate and other investment activities. It markets and distributes its insurance products primarily through independent national marketing organizations. National Western Life Group, Inc. was founded in 1956 and is based in Austin, Texas.

About Corebridge Financial

Corebridge Financial, Inc. provides retirement solutions and insurance products in the United States. The company operates through Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Life Insurance, and Institutional Markets segments. The Individual Retirement segment provides fixed annuities, fixed index annuities, variable annuities, and retail mutual funds. The Group Retirement segment offers record-keeping services, plan administration and compliance services, and financial planning and advisory solutions to employer-defined contribution plans and their participants, as well as proprietary and non-proprietary annuities, advisory services, and brokerage products. The Life Insurance segment offers term life and universal life insurance in the United States, as well as issues individual life, whole life, and group life insurance in the United Kingdom; and distributes medical insurance in Ireland. The Institutional Markets segment provides stable value wraps, structured settlement and pension risk transfer annuities, corporate and bank owned life insurance, private placement variable universal life and annuities products, and guaranteed investment contracts. The company was formerly known as SAFG Retirement Services, Inc. Corebridge Financial, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. The company operates as a subsidiary of American International Group, Inc.