Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) and Selective Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SIGI) Head-To-Head Analysis

Selective Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SIGI) and Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.A) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.9% of Selective Insurance Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 22.6% of Crawford & Company shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Selective Insurance Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 54.3% of Crawford & Company shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Selective Insurance Group and Crawford & Company, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Selective Insurance Group	1	5	2	0	2.12
Crawford & Company	0	0	1	0	3.00

Selective Insurance Group presently has a consensus target price of $100.33, indicating a potential upside of 6.52%. Crawford & Company has a consensus target price of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.71%. Given Crawford & Company’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Crawford & Company is more favorable than Selective Insurance Group.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Selective Insurance Group and Crawford & Company”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Selective Insurance Group	$5.47 billion	1.03	$466.41 million	$8.06	11.69
Crawford & Company	$1.31 billion	0.49	$19.63 million	$0.47	27.91

Selective Insurance Group has higher revenue and earnings than Crawford & Company. Selective Insurance Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crawford & Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Selective Insurance Group and Crawford & Company’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Selective Insurance Group	9.10%	14.51%	3.22%
Crawford & Company	1.81%	28.15%	6.51%

Dividends

Selective Insurance Group pays an annual dividend of $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Crawford & Company pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Selective Insurance Group pays out 21.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Crawford & Company pays out 63.8% 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. Selective Insurance Group has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years.

Volatility & Risk

Selective Insurance Group has a beta of 0.3, meaning that its share price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Crawford & Company has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Selective Insurance Group beats Crawford & Company on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Selective Insurance Group

Selective Insurance Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance products and services in the United States. The company operates through four segments: Standard Commercial Lines, Standard Personal Lines, E&S Lines, and Investments. It offers casualty insurance products that covers the financial consequences of employee injuries in the course of employment and bodily injury and/or property damage to a third party; property insurance products, which covers the accidental loss of an insured's real property, personal property, and/or earnings due to the property's loss; and flood insurance products. The company also invests in fixed income investments and commercial mortgage loans, as well as equity securities, short-term investments, and alternative investments, and other investments. It offers its insurance products and services to businesses, non-profit organizations, local government agencies, and individuals through independent retail agents and wholesale general agents. The company was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Branchville, New Jersey.

About Crawford & Company

Crawford & Company provides claims management and outsourcing solutions to the risk management and insurance industry, and self-insured entities. The company's Crawford Claims Solutions segment offers claims management services related to property, casualty, and catastrophe losses caused by physical damage to commercial and residential real properties, and personal properties, as well as marine losses. It also offers services in the areas of field investigation, catastrophe, evaluation, and resolution of property and casualty insurance claims; and various on-demand inspection, verification, and other task specific field services for businesses and consumers through a mobile platform. Its Crawford TPA Solutions segment provides claims and risk management services; desktop claim adjusting and claims evaluation services; initial loss reporting services for claimants; loss mitigation services, such as medical bill review and case management, and vocational rehabilitation services; and risk management information services, as well as administers trust funds established to pay claims. It offers services for workers' compensation, auto and liability, disability absence and medical management, and accident and health markets. The company's Crawford Specialty Solutions segment offers claims management services related to large and complex losses in various industries, such as commercial property, aviation, forensic accounting, marine and transportation, retail, building and construction, cyber, and energy. It also provides a customer-centric solution for various loss types comprising high-frequency and low-complexity claims, and large complex repairs; and outsourced contractor management services to personal and commercial insurance carriers, and consumer markets. The company operates in the United States, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, Canada, Australia, and internationally. Crawford & Company was founded in 1941 and is based in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.