Reviewing United Insurance Holdings Corp. (UIHC) & James River Group Holdings (JRVR)

United Insurance Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: UIHC) and James River Group Holdings (NASDAQ:JRVR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares United Insurance Holdings Corp. and James River Group Holdings’ revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Insurance Holdings Corp.	$559.34 million	1.22	$28.75 million	$0.02	800.00
James River Group Holdings	$699.18 million	1.67	$97.44 million	$2.65	14.95

James River Group Holdings has higher revenue and earnings than United Insurance Holdings Corp.. James River Group Holdings is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United Insurance Holdings Corp., indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

28.0% of United Insurance Holdings Corp. shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.0% of James River Group Holdings shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.6% of United Insurance Holdings Corp. shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 41.0% of James River Group Holdings shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for United Insurance Holdings Corp. and James River Group Holdings, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Insurance Holdings Corp.	0	1	2	1	3.00
James River Group Holdings	0	1	2	0	2.67

United Insurance Holdings Corp. currently has a consensus price target of $15.25, suggesting a potential downside of 4.69%. James River Group Holdings has a consensus price target of $44.67, suggesting a potential upside of 12.71%. Given James River Group Holdings’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe James River Group Holdings is more favorable than United Insurance Holdings Corp..

Dividends

United Insurance Holdings Corp. pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. James River Group Holdings pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. United Insurance Holdings Corp. pays out 1,200.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. James River Group Holdings pays out 45.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. James River Group Holdings is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

United Insurance Holdings Corp. has a beta of 1.61, indicating that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, James River Group Holdings has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares United Insurance Holdings Corp. and James River Group Holdings’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Insurance Holdings Corp.	0.73%	4.99%	1.34%
James River Group Holdings	11.45%	10.80%	3.21%

Summary

James River Group Holdings beats United Insurance Holdings Corp. on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About United Insurance Holdings Corp.

United Insurance Holdings Corp. is a property and casualty insurance holding company that sources, writes and services residential property and casualty insurance policies using a network of agents and a group of insurance subsidiaries. The Company’s insurance subsidiary is United Property & Casualty Insurance Company. Its other subsidiaries include United Insurance Management, L.C., the managing general agent that manages substantially all aspects of United Property & Casualty Insurance Company’s business; Skyway Claims Services, LLC, which provides services to its insurance affiliate; UPC Re, which provides a portion of the reinsurance protection purchased by its insurance affiliate. The Company’s principal product is homeowners’ insurance, which it offers in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Texas.

About James River Group Holdings

James River Group Holdings, Ltd. (JRG Holdings) is an insurance and reinsurance holding company. The Company operates through four segments: Excess and Surplus Lines, Specialty Admitted Insurance, Casualty Reinsurance, and Corporate and Other. The Excess and Surplus Lines segment offers commercial excess and surplus lines liability and excess property insurance products. The Specialty Admitted Insurance segment offers workers’ compensation insurance coverage, as well as specialty admitted fronting and program business. The Casualty Reinsurance segment offers commercial liability and non-catastrophe property reinsurance to the United States insurance companies and to its the United States-based insurance subsidiaries. The Corporate and Other segment consists of certain management and treasury activities of James River Group, Inc., James River Group Holdings UK Limited and JRG Holdings. It owns six insurance companies focused on specialty insurance niches and a reinsurance company.