NMI (NASDAQ:NMIH) and United Fire Group (NASDAQ:UFCS) Head to Head Contrast

NMI (NASDAQ:NMIH) and United Fire Group (NASDAQ:UFCS) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for NMI and United Fire Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NMI	0	1	4	0	2.80
United Fire Group	0	0	3	1	3.25

NMI currently has a consensus price target of $42.40, suggesting a potential upside of 12.89%. United Fire Group has a consensus price target of $51.00, suggesting a potential upside of 6.12%. Given NMI’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe NMI is more favorable than United Fire Group.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.1% of NMI shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.7% of United Fire Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.4% of NMI shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 6.1% of United Fire Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

NMI has a beta of 0.59, indicating that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Fire Group has a beta of 0.5, indicating that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares NMI and United Fire Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NMI	53.82%	15.18%	10.23%
United Fire Group	9.16%	14.65%	3.51%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares NMI and United Fire Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NMI	$706.44 million	4.04	$388.93 million	$4.91	7.65
United Fire Group	$1.39 billion	0.89	$118.19 million	$4.96	9.69

NMI has higher earnings, but lower revenue than United Fire Group. NMI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than United Fire Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

NMI beats United Fire Group on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NMI

NMI Holdings, Inc. provides private mortgage guaranty insurance services in the United States. The company offers mortgage insurance services, such as primary and pool insurance; and outsourced loan review services to mortgage loan originators. It serves national and regional mortgage banks, money center banks, credit unions, community banks, builder-owned mortgage lenders, internet-sourced lenders, and other non-bank lenders. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Emeryville, California.

About United Fire Group

United Fire Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty insurance for individuals and businesses in the United States. The company offers commercial and personal lines of property and casualty insurance; and reinsurance coverage for property and casualty insurance. Its commercial lines include fire and allied lines, other liability, automobile, workers’ compensation, fidelity and surety coverage, and other insurance products; and personal lines comprise automobile, and fire and allied lines coverage, including homeowners, as well as provides assumed reinsurance products. The company sells its products through a network of independent agencies. United Fire Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1946 and is headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.