Contrasting FBL Financial Group (FFG) and Emergent Capital (IFT)

FBL Financial Group (NYSE: FFG) and Emergent Capital (NYSE:IFT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for FBL Financial Group and Emergent Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FBL Financial Group	0	1	0	0	2.00
Emergent Capital	0	0	0	0	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares FBL Financial Group and Emergent Capital’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FBL Financial Group	$736.38 million	2.33	$184.11 million	$4.61	14.90
Emergent Capital	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

FBL Financial Group has higher revenue and earnings than Emergent Capital.

Dividends

FBL Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Emergent Capital does not pay a dividend. FBL Financial Group pays out 38.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. FBL Financial Group has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

29.4% of FBL Financial Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.6% of FBL Financial Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares FBL Financial Group and Emergent Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FBL Financial Group	15.70%	9.12%	1.16%
Emergent Capital	7.36%	4.35%	1.39%

Summary

FBL Financial Group beats Emergent Capital on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

FBL Financial Group Company Profile

FBL Financial Group, Inc. sells individual life insurance and annuity products under the brand name of Farm Bureau Financial Services. The Company’s segments are Annuity Segment, which sells a variety of traditional annuity products; Life Insurance Segment, which sells a range of traditional and universal life insurance products, and Corporate and Other segment, which provides various support operations, corporate capital and other product lines. It also offers life and annuity products through its subsidiary, Greenfields Life Insurance Company. Its other subsidiaries support various functional areas and affiliates by providing investment advisory and marketing and distribution services. It manages all aspects of two Farm Bureau affiliated property-casualty insurance companies, Farm Bureau Property & Casualty Insurance Company and Western Agricultural Insurance Company.

Emergent Capital Company Profile

Emergent Capital, Inc., formerly Imperial Holdings, Inc., is a specialty finance company that invests in asset classes, primarily life settlements. The Company, through its subsidiary companies, owns a portfolio of approximately 630 life insurance policies (life settlements). The Company purchases individual policies and portfolios of life insurance policies and manages those assets based on actuarial and market data. The Company provides customized liquidity solutions to owners of illiquid financial assets in two markets, which include life finance and structured settlements. The Company focuses on lending to outright purchases of portfolios, to tertiary trades, as well as individual secondary market purchases. The Company invests in short and long-term life settlement investments.