Reviewing James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) & CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO)

James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) and CNO Financial Group (NYSE:CNO) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.2% of James River Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 33.8% of James River Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of CNO Financial Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for James River Group and CNO Financial Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
James River Group	2	5	0	0	1.71
CNO Financial Group	0	2	3	0	2.60

James River Group presently has a consensus target price of $6.44, indicating a potential upside of 59.74%. CNO Financial Group has a consensus target price of $48.75, indicating a potential downside of 4.87%. Given James River Group’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe James River Group is more favorable than CNO Financial Group.

Profitability

This table compares James River Group and CNO Financial Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
James River Group	4.34%	10.79%	1.13%
CNO Financial Group	5.44%	17.65%	1.18%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares James River Group and CNO Financial Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
James River Group	$687.61 million	0.27	$47.43 million	$0.34	11.85
CNO Financial Group	$4.49 billion	1.07	$229.30 million	$2.49	20.58

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

Dividends

James River Group pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. CNO Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $0.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. James River Group pays out 11.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CNO Financial Group pays out 28.9% 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. CNO Financial Group has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years. CNO Financial Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Volatility & Risk

James River Group has a beta of -0.16, indicating that its share price is 116% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CNO Financial Group has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

CNO Financial Group beats James River Group on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About James River Group

James River Group Holdings, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides specialty insurance services. It operates through Excess and Surplus Lines, and Specialty Admitted Insurance segments. The Excess and Surplus Lines segment underwrites liability and property insurance in the United States Puerto Rice, and the United States Virgin Islands. This segment distributes its insurance policies primarily through wholesale insurance brokers. The Specialty Admitted Insurance segment provides insurance for fronting, program administrators, managing general agents, and independent retail agents. James River Group Holdings, Ltd. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.

About CNO Financial Group

CNO Financial Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, develops, markets, and administers health insurance, annuity, individual life insurance, insurance products, and financial services for senior and middle-income markets in the United States. It offers Medicare supplement, supplemental health, and long-term care insurance policies; life insurance; and annuities, as well as Medicare advantage plans to individuals through phone, online, mail, and face-to-face. The company also focuses on sale of voluntary benefit life and health insurance products for businesses, associations, and other membership groups by interacting with customers at their place of employment. In addition, it provides fixed indexed annuities; fixed interest annuities, including fixed rate single and flexible premium deferred annuities; single premium immediate annuities; supplemental health products, such as specified disease, accident, and hospital indemnity products; and long-term care plans primarily to retirees and older self-employed individuals in the middle-income market. Further, the company offers universal life and other interest-sensitive life products; and traditional life policies that include whole life, graded benefit life, term life, and single premium whole life products, as well as graded benefit life insurance products. It markets its products under the Bankers Life, Washington National, and Colonial Penn brand names. The company was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.