Allstate (NYSE:ALL) and Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) Head-To-Head Analysis

Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) and Allstate (NYSE:ALL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Investors Title pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Allstate pays an annual dividend of $4.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Investors Title pays out 9.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Allstate pays out 12.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Allstate has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years. Allstate is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk and Volatility

Investors Title has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Allstate has a beta of 0.35, suggesting that its stock price is 65% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Investors Title and Allstate”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Investors Title	$273.87 million	1.91	$31.07 million	$19.01	14.61
Allstate	$66.21 billion	0.84	$4.67 billion	$30.89	6.91

Allstate has higher revenue and earnings than Investors Title. Allstate is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Investors Title, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.4% of Investors Title shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.5% of Allstate shares are held by institutional investors. 26.4% of Investors Title shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Allstate 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.

Profitability

This table compares Investors Title and Allstate’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Investors Title	12.28%	12.70%	9.71%
Allstate	8.79%	28.74%	5.05%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Investors Title and Allstate, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Investors Title	0	0	1	0	3.00
Allstate	1	4	10	2	2.76

Allstate has a consensus target price of $237.92, indicating a potential upside of 11.50%. Given Allstate’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Allstate is more favorable than Investors Title.

Summary

Allstate beats Investors Title on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Allstate

The Allstate Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty, and other insurance products in the United States and Canada. It operates in five segments: Allstate Protection; Protection Services; Allstate Health and Benefits; Run-off Property-Liability; and Corporate and Other segments. The Allstate Protection segment offers private passenger auto and homeowners insurance; other personal lines products; and commercial lines products through agents, contact centers, and online. The Protection Services segment provides consumer product protection; protection and insurance products, including vehicle service contracts, guaranteed asset protection, road hazard tire and wheel, and paintless dent repair protection; and roadside assistance, device and mobile data collection services, and analytic solutions using automotive telematics information, as well as identity theft protection and remediation services. This segment also offers its products under various brands, including Allstate Protection Plans, Allstate Dealer Services, Allstate Roadside, Arity, Avail, and Allstate Identity Protection. The Allstate Health and Benefits segment provides life, accident, critical illness, short-term disability, and other health insurance products; stop-loss and fully insured group health products to employers; and short-term medical and medicare supplement insurance to individuals. The Run-off Property-Liability segment offers property and casualty insurance coverage that primarily relates to policies written during the 1960s through the mid-1980s. The Corporate and Other segment provides debt services, as well as non-insurance operations. It sells its products through agents, independent agents, call and contact centers, retailers, direct to consumer, wholesale partners, and affinity groups, as well as through online and mobile applications. The Allstate Corporation was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.