Head-To-Head Analysis: Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) & RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR)

Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) and RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

41.4% of Investors Title shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 100.0% of RenaissanceRe shares are held by institutional investors. 26.4% of Investors Title shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of RenaissanceRe shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Investors Title and RenaissanceRe’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Investors Title	13.15%	13.72%	10.47%
RenaissanceRe	14.23%	16.83%	3.17%

Volatility & Risk

Investors Title has a beta of 0.62, meaning that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, RenaissanceRe has a beta of 0.26, meaning that its stock price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Investors Title pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. RenaissanceRe pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Investors Title pays out 9.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. RenaissanceRe pays out 4.4% 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. RenaissanceRe has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Investors Title and RenaissanceRe, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Investors Title	0	0	1	0	3.00
RenaissanceRe	1	12	5	1	2.32

RenaissanceRe has a consensus price target of $286.29, indicating a potential upside of 2.85%. Given RenaissanceRe’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe RenaissanceRe is more favorable than Investors Title.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Investors Title and RenaissanceRe”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Investors Title	$258.30 million	1.84	$31.07 million	$19.01	13.26
RenaissanceRe	$11.70 billion	1.10	$1.87 billion	$35.99	7.73

RenaissanceRe has higher revenue and earnings than Investors Title. RenaissanceRe is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Investors Title, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

RenaissanceRe beats Investors Title on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Investors Title

Investors Title Company engages in the issuance of residential and commercial title insurance for residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial properties. The company underwrites land title insurance for owners and mortgagees as a primary insurer; and assumes the reinsurance of title insurance risks from other title insurance companies. It offers services in connection with tax-deferred exchanges of like-kind property; acts as a qualified intermediary in tax-deferred exchanges of property; coordinates the exchange aspects of the real estate transaction, such as drafting standard exchange documents, holding the exchange funds between the sale of the old property and the purchase of the new property, and accepting the formal identification of the replacement property. In addition, it serves as an exchange accommodation titleholder for accomplishing reverse exchanges when the taxpayers decide to acquire replacement property before selling the relinquished property. Further, the company offers investment management and trust services to individuals, companies, banks, and trusts; and consulting and management services to clients to start and operate a title insurance agency. It issues title insurance policies directly and through a network of agents in 22 states and the District of Columbia, primarily in the eastern half of the United States. Investors Title Company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

About RenaissanceRe

RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Property, and Casualty and Specialty segments. The Property segment writes property catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance and excess of loss reinsurance to insure insurance and reinsurance companies against natural and man-made catastrophes, including hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis, as well as winter storms, freezes, floods, fires, windstorms, tornadoes, explosions, and acts of terrorism; and other property class of products, such as proportional reinsurance, property per risk, property reinsurance, binding facilities, and regional U.S. multi-line reinsurance. The Casualty and Specialty segment writes various classes of products, such as directors and officers, medical malpractice, and professional indemnity; automobile and employer’s liability, casualty clash, umbrella or excess casualty, workers’ compensation, and general liability; financial and mortgage guaranty, political risk, surety, and trade credit; and accident and health, agriculture, aviation, cyber, energy, marine, satellite, and terrorism. It distributes products and services primarily through intermediaries. The company invests in and manages funds. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.