Head to Head Comparison: Fidelity National Financial (FNFV) and Stewart Information Services Corporation (STC)

Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNFV) and Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE:STC) are both small-cap financials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitabiliy, valuation, dividends, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and Stewart Information Services Corporation’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fidelity National Financial	$1.33 billion	0.77	$82.00 million	($0.08)	-193.75
Stewart Information Services Corporation	$2.02 billion	0.54	$145.76 million	$2.49	18.51

Stewart Information Services Corporation has higher revenue and earnings than Fidelity National Financial. Fidelity National Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Stewart Information Services Corporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Fidelity National Financial and Stewart Information Services Corporation, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fidelity National Financial	0	0	0	0	N/A
Stewart Information Services Corporation	3	1	0	0	1.25

Stewart Information Services Corporation has a consensus target price of $43.50, suggesting a potential downside of 5.60%. Given Stewart Information Services Corporation’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Stewart Information Services Corporation is more favorable than Fidelity National Financial.

Dividends

Stewart Information Services Corporation pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Fidelity National Financial does not pay a dividend. Stewart Information Services Corporation pays out 48.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and Stewart Information Services Corporation’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fidelity National Financial	-0.30%	0.03%	0.01%
Stewart Information Services Corporation	3.52%	10.64%	5.17%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

83.2% of Fidelity National Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.4% of Stewart Information Services Corporation shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.4% of Fidelity National Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Stewart Information Services Corporation shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Fidelity National Financial has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Stewart Information Services Corporation has a beta of 0.81, suggesting that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Stewart Information Services Corporation beats Fidelity National Financial on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

Fidelity National Financial Company Profile

Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF) is a holding company. The Company is a provider of title insurance, technology and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries. The Company’s segments include Title, Black Knight, FNF Core Corporate and Other, Restaurant Group, and FNFV Corporate and Other. Its business is organized into groups, including FNF Group and FNF Ventures (FNFV). The Company offers title insurance through its title insurance underwriters: Fidelity National Title Insurance Company, Chicago Title Insurance Company, Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Company, Alamo Title Insurance and National Title Insurance of New York Inc., which collectively issue title insurance policies. FNF Group also provides mortgage technology solutions, including MSP, a residential mortgage servicing technology platform in the United States, through its subsidiary, Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. (Black Knight).

Stewart Information Services Corporation Company Profile

Stewart Information Services Corporation is a global real estate services company. The Company is engaged in offering products and services through its direct operations, network of Stewart Trusted Providers and family of companies. The Company operates through two segments: title insurance and ancillary services and corporate. Title insurance and related services (title) segment provides services needed to transfer title to property in a real estate transaction and includes services, such as searching, examining, closing and insuring the condition of the title to the property. The ancillary services and corporate segment provides appraisal and valuation services, document management, recording and call center-related services offered to mortgage lenders and servicers, mortgage brokers and mortgage investors. Its primary international operations are located in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Central Europe.