AmTrust Financial Services (AFSI) vs. MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG) Financial Contrast

AmTrust Financial Services (NASDAQ: AFSI) and MGIC Investment Corporation (NYSE:MTG) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitabiliy and risk.

Risk & Volatility

AmTrust Financial Services has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MGIC Investment Corporation has a beta of 2.07, indicating that its share price is 107% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares AmTrust Financial Services and MGIC Investment Corporation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AmTrust Financial Services	7.55%	17.24%	1.99%
MGIC Investment Corporation	34.10%	17.00%	7.52%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for AmTrust Financial Services and MGIC Investment Corporation, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AmTrust Financial Services	0	1	3	0	2.75
MGIC Investment Corporation	0	1	8	0	2.89

AmTrust Financial Services currently has a consensus price target of $19.50, suggesting a potential upside of 25.08%. MGIC Investment Corporation has a consensus price target of $11.50, suggesting a potential downside of 2.87%. Given AmTrust Financial Services’ higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe AmTrust Financial Services is more favorable than MGIC Investment Corporation.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares AmTrust Financial Services and MGIC Investment Corporation’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AmTrust Financial Services	$5.63 billion	0.47	$608.08 million	$2.08	7.50
MGIC Investment Corporation	$1.06 billion	4.14	$784.67 million	$0.92	12.87

MGIC Investment Corporation has higher revenue, but lower earnings than AmTrust Financial Services. AmTrust Financial Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MGIC Investment Corporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

45.6% of AmTrust Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.1% of MGIC Investment Corporation shares are held by institutional investors. 42.8% of AmTrust Financial Services shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of MGIC Investment Corporation shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

AmTrust Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.4%. MGIC Investment Corporation does not pay a dividend. AmTrust Financial Services pays out 32.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

MGIC Investment Corporation beats AmTrust Financial Services on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

AmTrust Financial Services Company Profile

Amtrust Financial Services, Inc. (AmTrust) is an insurance holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides specialty property and casualty insurance focusing on workers’ compensation and commercial package coverage for small business, specialty risk and extended warranty coverage, and property and casualty coverage for middle market business. Its segments include Small Commercial Business, Specialty Risk and Extended Warranty, and Specialty Program. The Small Commercial Business segment is engaged in providing workers’ compensation, commercial package and other commercial insurance lines produced by wholesale agents, retail agents and brokers in the United States. The Specialty Risk and Extended Warranty segment is engaged in providing coverage for consumer and commercial goods and custom designed coverages. The Specialty Program segment is engaged in writing commercial insurance for defined classes of insureds through general and other wholesale agents.

MGIC Investment Corporation Company Profile

MGIC Investment Corporation is a holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and ancillary services. The Company provides mortgage insurance to lenders throughout the United States and to government-sponsored entities to protect against loss from defaults on low down payment residential mortgage loans. Its principal product is primary mortgage insurance. Primary insurance provides mortgage default protection on individual loans and covers unpaid loan principal, delinquent interest and certain expenses associated with the default and subsequent foreclosure or sale approved by the Company. Through certain other non-insurance subsidiaries, the Company also provides various services for the mortgage finance industry, such as contract underwriting, analysis of loan originations and portfolios, and mortgage lead generation. The Company’s subsidiaries include Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation (MGIC) and MGIC Indemnity Corporation (MIC).