Investors Title (NASDAQ:ITIC) and Loews (NYSE:L) Critical Contrast

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

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Loews and Investors Title”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Loews	$18.45 billion	1.20	$1.67 billion	$8.16	13.27
Investors Title	$272.76 million	2.03	$35.18 million	$21.35	13.74

Loews has higher revenue and earnings than Investors Title. Loews 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

58.3% of Loews shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.4% of Investors Title shares are held by institutional investors. 19.0% of Loews shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 26.0% of Investors Title shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Loews and Investors Title, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Loews	0	0	0	1	4.00
Investors Title	0	0	1	0	3.00

Volatility and Risk

Loews has a beta of 0.51, indicating that its share price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Investors Title has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Loews	9.02%	8.60%	1.96%
Investors Title	13.80%	14.62%	11.02%

Dividends

Loews pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Investors Title pays an annual dividend of $1.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Loews pays out 3.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Investors Title pays out 8.6% 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.

Summary

Investors Title beats Loews on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Loews

Loews Corporation provides commercial property and casualty insurance in the United States and internationally. The company offers specialty insurance products, such as management and professional liability, and other coverage products; surety and fidelity bonds; property insurance products that include standard and excess property, marine and boiler, and machinery coverages; and casualty insurance products, such as workers' compensation, general and product liability, and commercial auto, surplus, and umbrella coverages. It also provides loss-sensitive insurance programs; and warranty, risk management, information, and claims administration services. The company markets its insurance products and services through independent agents, brokers, and managing general underwriters. In addition, the company is involved in the transportation and storage of natural gas and natural gas liquids, and hydrocarbons through natural gas pipelines covering approximately 13,455 miles of interconnected pipelines; 855 miles of NGL pipelines in Louisiana and Texas; 14 underground storage fields with an aggregate gas capacity of approximately 199.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas; and eleven salt dome caverns and related brine infrastructure for providing brine supply services. Further, the company operates a chain of 25 hotels; and develops, manufactures, and markets a range of extrusion blow-molded and injection molded plastic containers for customers in the pharmaceutical, dairy, household chemicals, food/nutraceuticals, industrial/specialty chemicals, and water and beverage/juice industries, as well as manufactures commodity and differentiated plastic resins from recycled plastic materials. Loews Corporation was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

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.