BEZ vs. LRE, JUST, HSX, HL, PCT, ATST, MNG, INVP, UKW, and PHNX
Should you be buying Beazley stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Beazley include Lancashire (LRE), Just Group (JUST), Hiscox (HSX), Hargreaves Lansdown (HL), Polar Capital Technology Trust (PCT), Alliance Trust (ATST), M&G (MNG), Investec Group (INVP), Greencoat UK Wind (UKW), and Phoenix Group (PHNX). These companies are all part of the "financial services" sector.
Lancashire (LON:LRE) and Beazley (LON:BEZ) are both financial services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, media sentiment, community ranking, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.
Lancashire has a beta of 0.58, indicating that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Beazley has a beta of 0.68, indicating that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.
59.3% of Lancashire shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.4% of Beazley shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Lancashire shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Beazley shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Lancashire has a net margin of 26.70% compared to Lancashire's net margin of 20.14%. Lancashire's return on equity of 30.04% beat Beazley's return on equity.
Beazley received 351 more outperform votes than Lancashire when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.83% of users gave Beazley an outperform vote while only 44.39% of users gave Lancashire an outperform vote.
Beazley has higher revenue and earnings than Lancashire. Beazley is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lancashire, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Lancashire had 4 more articles in the media than Beazley. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Lancashire and 0 mentions for Beazley. Beazley's average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Lancashire's score of 0.00 indicating that Lancashire is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Lancashire pays an annual dividend of GBX 16 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Beazley pays an annual dividend of GBX 14 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Lancashire pays out 1,538.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Beazley pays out 1,166.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.
Lancashire presently has a consensus target price of GBX 792, indicating a potential upside of 25.91%. Beazley has a consensus target price of GBX 906, indicating a potential upside of 34.92%. Given Lancashire's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Beazley is more favorable than Lancashire.
Summary
Beazley beats Lancashire on 14 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding BEZ and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Skip ChartThis chart shows the average media sentiment of LON and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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