Head to Head Contrast: Hamilton Insurance Group (NYSE:HG) and Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO)

Hamilton Insurance Group (NYSE:HG) and Assured Guaranty (NYSE:AGO) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Hamilton Insurance Group and Assured Guaranty, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hamilton Insurance Group	0	3	6	0	2.67
Assured Guaranty	0	2	3	0	2.60

Hamilton Insurance Group currently has a consensus target price of $35.38, suggesting a potential downside of 0.74%. Assured Guaranty has a consensus target price of $91.67, suggesting a potential upside of 8.79%. Given Assured Guaranty’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Assured Guaranty is more favorable than Hamilton Insurance Group.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

29.2% of Hamilton Insurance Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.2% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of Hamilton Insurance Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.7% of Assured Guaranty shares are owned by company 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 Hamilton Insurance Group and Assured Guaranty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hamilton Insurance Group	21.73%	23.19%	6.74%
Assured Guaranty	40.45%	6.98%	3.25%

Volatility and Risk

Hamilton Insurance Group has a beta of 0.35, meaning that its share price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assured Guaranty has a beta of 0.75, meaning that its share price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Hamilton Insurance Group and Assured Guaranty”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hamilton Insurance Group	$2.91 billion	1.22	$576.67 million	$6.11	5.83
Assured Guaranty	$1.11 billion	3.36	$503.00 million	$8.71	9.67

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

Summary

Assured Guaranty beats Hamilton Insurance Group on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hamilton Insurance Group

Hamilton Insurance Group, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides underwriting specialty insurance and reinsurance risks in Bermuda and internationally. The company operates Hamilton Global Specialty, Hamilton Select, and Hamilton Re underwriting platforms. The company offers casualty reinsurance products, such as commercial motor, general liability, healthcare, multiline, personal motor, professional liability, umbrella and excess casualty, and worker's compensation and employer's liability reinsurance; property reinsurance and insurance; and specialty reinsurance solutions, including accident and health, aviation and space, crisis management, mortgage, financial lines, marine and energy, and multiline specialty. In addition, it offers accident and health, cyber, energy, environmental, financial lines, fine art and specie, kidnap and ransom, mergers and acquisitions, marine and energy liability, political risk and violence, professional liability, property binders, property direct and facultative, professional lines, space, upstream energy, excess casualty, war and terrorism, allied medical, management liability, medical professionals, general liability, products liability and contractors, and small business casualty insurance plans, as well as surety and treaty reinsurance products. The company was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.

About Assured Guaranty

Assured Guaranty Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides credit protection products to public finance, infrastructure, and structured finance markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Insurance and Asset Management. The company offers financial guaranty insurance that protects holders of debt instruments and other monetary obligations from defaults in scheduled payments. It insures and reinsures various debt obligations, including bonds issued by the United States state governmental authorities; and notes issued to finance infrastructure projects. In addition, the company insures and reinsures various the U.S. public finance obligations, such as general obligation, tax-backed, municipal utility, transportation, healthcare, higher education, infrastructure, housing revenue, investor-owned utility, renewable energy, and other public finance bonds. Further, the company involved in insuring and reinsuring of non-U.S. public finance obligations comprising regulated utilities, infrastructure finance, sovereign and sub-sovereign, renewable energy bonds, pooled infrastructure, and other public finance obligations; and the U.S. and non-U.S. Structured finance obligations, including residential mortgage-backed securities, life insurance transactions, consumer receivables securities, subscription finance facilities, pooled corporate obligations, and financial products. Additionally, it offers specialty business, such as real estate properties, insurance securitizations, and aircraft residual value insurance (RVI) transactions; and asset management services comprising investment advisory services. It markets its financial guaranty insurance directly to issuers and underwriters of public finance and structured finance securities, as well as to investors in such obligations. Assured Guaranty Ltd. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.