Financial Contrast: Prudential Public (NYSE:PUK) versus Radian Group (NYSE:RDN)

Prudential Public (NYSE:PUK) and Radian Group (NYSE:RDN) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, risk and valuation.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Prudential Public and Radian Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Prudential Public	$27.39 billion	1.32	$3.98 billion	N/A	N/A
Radian Group	$1.37 billion	3.73	$582.64 million	$4.06	9.47

Prudential Public has higher revenue and earnings than Radian Group.

Profitability

This table compares Prudential Public and Radian Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Prudential Public	N/A	N/A	N/A
Radian Group	40.50%	13.57%	6.95%

Dividends

Prudential Public pays an annual dividend of $0.71 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Radian Group pays an annual dividend of $1.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Radian Group pays out 25.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Radian Group has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Radian Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Risk & Volatility

Prudential Public has a beta of 0.73, meaning that its stock price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Radian Group has a beta of 0.72, meaning that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

1.9% of Prudential Public shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.3% of Radian Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Prudential Public shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Radian Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Prudential Public and Radian Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Prudential Public	0	2	4	1	2.86
Radian Group	0	3	5	0	2.62

Radian Group has a consensus price target of $43.17, indicating a potential upside of 12.30%. Given Radian Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Radian Group is more favorable than Prudential Public.

Summary

Radian Group beats Prudential Public on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Prudential Public

Prudential plc, through its subsidiaries, provides life and health insurance, and asset management solutions to individuals in Asia and Africa. The company was founded in 1848 and is headquartered in Central, Hong Kong.

About Radian Group

Radian Group Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mortgage and real estate services business in the United States. It operates through two segments, Mortgage Insurance and Homegenius segments. The Mortgage Insurance segment aggregates, manages, and distributes U.S. mortgage credit risk for mortgage lending institutions and mortgage credit investors, through private mortgage insurance on residential first-lien mortgage loans; and other credit risk management solutions, including contract underwriting. The Homegenius segment offers title services, including a suite of insurance and non-insurance titles; tax and title data, centralized recording, document retrieval, and default curative title services; deed and property reports; closing and settlement services; mortgage underwriting and processing; escrow; appraisal management; and real estate brokerage. This segment also provides real estate valuation products and services; asset management services for managing real estate owned properties, which includes a web-based workflow solution; and a suite of real estate technology products and services to facilitate real estate transactions, such as proprietary platforms as a service solution. It serves mortgage originators, such as mortgage bankers, commercial banks, savings institutions, credit unions, and community banks; and consumers, mortgage lenders, mortgage and real estate investors, government-sponsored enterprises, real estate brokers and agents, and corporations for their employees. The company was formerly known as CMAC Investment Corp. and changed its name to Radian Group Inc. in June 1999. Radian Group Inc. was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania.