Head-To-Head Review: W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) & F&G Annuities & Life (NYSE:FG)

W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) and F&G Annuities & Life (NYSE:FG) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for W.R. Berkley and F&G Annuities & Life, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W.R. Berkley	6	9	3	0	1.83
F&G Annuities & Life	1	3	0	0	1.75

W.R. Berkley currently has a consensus price target of $70.83, indicating a potential upside of 3.86%. F&G Annuities & Life has a consensus price target of $30.00, indicating a potential upside of 34.63%. Given F&G Annuities & Life’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe F&G Annuities & Life is more favorable than W.R. Berkley.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

68.8% of W.R. Berkley shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.9% of F&G Annuities & Life shares are held by institutional investors. 25.1% of W.R. Berkley shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.5% of F&G Annuities & Life shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

W.R. Berkley pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. F&G Annuities & Life pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.5%. W.R. Berkley pays out 8.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. F&G Annuities & Life pays out 34.1% 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. W.R. Berkley has increased its dividend for 23 consecutive years and F&G Annuities & Life has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares W.R. Berkley and F&G Annuities & Life’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.R. Berkley	12.94%	19.44%	4.28%
F&G Annuities & Life	6.89%	10.28%	0.50%

Volatility and Risk

W.R. Berkley has a beta of 0.28, meaning that its stock price is 72% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, F&G Annuities & Life has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares W.R. Berkley and F&G Annuities & Life”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
W.R. Berkley	$14.71 billion	1.72	$1.78 billion	$4.87	14.00
F&G Annuities & Life	$5.73 billion	0.51	$265.00 million	$2.93	7.61

W.R. Berkley has higher revenue and earnings than F&G Annuities & Life. F&G Annuities & Life is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than W.R. Berkley, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

W.R. Berkley beats F&G Annuities & Life on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines. This segment also provides accident and health insurance and reinsurance products; insurance for commercial risks; casualty and specialty environmental products; specialized insurance coverages for fine arts and jewelry exposures; excess liability and inland marine coverage for small to medium-sized insureds; and commercial general liability, umbrella, professional liability, directors and officers, commercial property, and surety products, as well as products for technology, and life sciences and travel industries. In addition, this segment offers cyber risk solutions; crime and fidelity insurance products; medical professional coverages; workers' compensation insurance products; general insurance; personal lines insurance solutions, including home, condo/co-op, auto, and collectibles; automobile, law enforcement, public officials and educator's legal, and employment practices liability, as well as incidental medical and property and crime insurance products; at-risk and alternative risk insurance program management services; professional liability; energy and marine risks; and provides insurance products to the Lloyd's marketplace. The Reinsurance & Monoline Excess segment provides treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions; property and casualty reinsurance; facultative reinsurance products include automatic, semi-automatic and individual risk assumed reinsurance; and turnkey products such as cyber, employment practices liability insurance, liquor liability insurance and violent events. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

About F&G Annuities & Life

F&G Annuities & Life, Inc. engages in the provision of fixed annuity and life insurance products. It specializes in life insurance, annuities, retirement planning and wealth transfer. The company was founded in 1959 and is headquartered in Des Moines, IA.