AA (OTCMKTS:AATDF) versus James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) Critical Survey

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for AA and James River Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AA	0	0	0	0	0.00
James River Group	1	4	1	1	2.29

James River Group has a consensus target price of $6.40, suggesting a potential upside of 4.23%. Given James River Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe James River Group is more favorable than AA.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares AA and James River Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AA	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
James River Group	$707.63 million	0.40	-$81.12 million	($2.08)	-2.95

AA has higher earnings, but lower revenue than James River Group.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AA	N/A	N/A	N/A
James River Group	-7.64%	7.11%	0.69%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

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

Summary

James River Group beats AA on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AA

AA plc provides roadside assistance, insurance, and driving services in the United Kingdom. It operates through two segments, Roadside and Insurance. The company offers breakdowns cover for cars, motorcycles, caravans, vans, and towing; car, motorbike, van, and caravan insurance; and loans, savings, mortgage, travel currency card, insurance, and credit card products. It also provides home, content, building, pet, and holiday home insurance products; and travel services. In addition, the company offers driving advisory services, such as child safety, fuel and environment, legal advisory, service and repair, safety, security, and driving cost and other services; car and MOT services; and financial services, such as personal loans, car loans, home improvement loans, debt consolidation loans, wedding loans, loan management, savings, credit cards, and online security services, as well as reinsurance services. It serves fleet and leasing companies. The company was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Basingstoke, the United Kingdom.

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.