Reviewing Jackson Financial (NYSE:JXN) & Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC)

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

Volatility & Risk

Jackson Financial has a beta of 1.31, indicating that its share price is 31% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investors Title has a beta of 0.6, indicating that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.0% of Jackson Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.4% of Investors Title shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Jackson Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 26.0% of Investors Title shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Jackson Financial pays an annual dividend of $3.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Investors Title pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Jackson Financial pays out 507.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Investors Title pays out 8.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Jackson Financial has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. Jackson Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Jackson Financial and Investors Title, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Jackson Financial	0	4	2	0	2.33
Investors Title	0	0	1	0	3.00

Jackson Financial currently has a consensus price target of $134.20, suggesting a potential upside of 2.97%. Given Jackson Financial’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Jackson Financial is more favorable than Investors Title.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Jackson Financial	1.59%	18.93%	0.52%
Investors Title	13.80%	14.62%	11.02%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Jackson Financial and Investors Title”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Jackson Financial	$6.34 billion	1.39	$27.00 million	$0.71	183.57
Investors Title	$272.76 million	1.95	$35.18 million	$21.35	13.20

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

Summary

Jackson Financial beats Investors Title on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Jackson Financial

Jackson Financial Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides suite of annuities to retail investors in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Retail Annuities, Institutional Products, and Closed Life and Annuity Blocks. The Retail Annuities segment offers various retirement income and savings products, including variable, fixed index, fixed, and payout annuities, as well as registered index-linked annuities and lifetime income solutions. The Institutional Products segment provides traditional guaranteed investment contracts; funding agreements comprising agreements issued in conjunction with its participation in the U.S. federal home loan bank program; and medium-term funding agreement-backed notes. The Closed Life and Annuity Blocks segment offers various protection products, such as whole life, universal life, variable universal life, and term life insurance products, as well as fixed, fixed index, and payout annuities; and a block of group payout annuities. The company also offers investment management services. It sells its products through a distribution network that includes independent broker-dealers, wirehouses, regional broker-dealers, banks, independent registered investment advisors, third-party platforms, and insurance agents. The company was formerly known as Brooke (Holdco1) Inc. and changed its name to Jackson Financial Inc. in July 2020. Jackson Financial Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Lansing, Michigan.

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.