Analyzing HCI Group (HCI) & Its Peers

HCI Group (NYSE:HCI) is one of 311 public companies in the “Insurance” industry, but how does it compare to its rivals? We will compare HCI Group to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Volatility and Risk

HCI Group has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HCI Group’s rivals have a beta of -1.51, indicating that their average stock price is 251% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.0% of HCI Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.9% of shares of all “Insurance” companies are held by institutional investors. 18.5% of HCI Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 13.4% of shares of all “Insurance” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

HCI Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. HCI Group pays out 6.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Insurance” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.9% and pay out 30.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for HCI Group and its rivals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HCI Group	0	1	5	1	3.00
HCI Group Competitors	3323	15639	16473	738	2.40

HCI Group currently has a consensus target price of $241.67, suggesting a potential upside of 19.26%. As a group, “Insurance” companies have a potential upside of 5.32%. Given HCI Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe HCI Group is more favorable than its rivals.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares HCI Group and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
HCI Group	$900.95 million	$299.01 million	8.73
HCI Group Competitors	$15.63 billion	$1.70 billion	34.59

HCI Group’s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than HCI Group. HCI Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares HCI Group and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HCI Group	32.60%	28.80%	12.25%
HCI Group Competitors	9.36%	-9.77%	4.23%

Summary

HCI Group beats its rivals on 11 of the 15 factors compared.

HCI Group Company Profile

HCI Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the property and casualty insurance, insurance management, reinsurance, real estate, and information technology businesses in Florida. It provides residential insurance products, such as homeowners, fire, flood, and wind-only insurance to homeowners, condominium owners, and tenants for properties, as well as offers reinsurance programs. The company also owns and operates waterfront properties and retail shopping centers, and an office building, as well as commercial properties for investment purposes. In addition, it designs and develops web-based applications and products for mobile devices, including SAMS, an online policy administration platform; Harmony, a policy administration platform; ClaimColony, an end-to-end claims management platform; and AtlasViewer, a mapping and data visualization platform. The company was formerly known as Homeowners Choice, Inc. and changed its name to HCI Group, Inc. in May 2013. HCI Group, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida.