Investors Title (ITIC) versus Its Peers Head to Head Survey

Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) is one of 311 publicly-traded companies in the “Insurance” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Investors Title to related businesses based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk and dividends.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.4% of Investors Title shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.8% of shares of all “Insurance” companies are owned by institutional investors. 26.0% of Investors Title shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.5% of shares of all “Insurance” companies are owned by company 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.

Volatility & Risk

Investors Title has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investors Title’s peers have a beta of -1.59, meaning that their average stock price is 259% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Investors Title pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Investors Title pays out 9.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Insurance” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.9% and pay out 31.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Investors Title and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Investors Title	13.80%	14.62%	11.02%
Investors Title Competitors	9.08%	-9.84%	4.11%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Investors Title and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Investors Title	0	0	1	0	3.00
Investors Title Competitors	3336	15682	16533	742	2.40

As a group, “Insurance” companies have a potential upside of 5.46%. Given Investors Title’s peers higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Investors Title has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Investors Title and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Investors Title	$272.76 million	$35.18 million	13.08
Investors Title Competitors	$15.26 billion	$1.70 billion	34.48

Investors Title’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Investors Title. Investors Title is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Investors Title beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Investors Title

Investors Title Company engages in the issuance of residential and commercial title insurance for residential, institutional, commercial, and industrial properties. The company underwrites land title insurance for owners and mortgagees as a primary insurer; and assumes the reinsurance of title insurance risks from other title insurance companies. It offers services in connection with tax-deferred exchanges of like-kind property; acts as a qualified intermediary in tax-deferred exchanges of property; coordinates the exchange aspects of the real estate transaction, such as drafting standard exchange documents, holding the exchange funds between the sale of the old property and the purchase of the new property, and accepting the formal identification of the replacement property. In addition, it serves as an exchange accommodation titleholder for accomplishing reverse exchanges when the taxpayers decide to acquire replacement property before selling the relinquished property. Further, the company offers investment management and trust services to individuals, companies, banks, and trusts; and consulting and management services to clients to start and operate a title insurance agency. It issues title insurance policies directly and through a network of agents in 22 states and the District of Columbia, primarily in the eastern half of the United States. Investors Title Company was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.