Contrasting Sanlam (SLLDY) and Its Peers

Sanlam (OTCMKTS:SLLDY) is one of 316 public companies in the “Insurance” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Sanlam to related businesses based on the strength of its earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sanlam and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sanlam	N/A	N/A	1.21
Sanlam Competitors	$15.48 billion	$1.69 billion	32.90

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Sanlam and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sanlam	1	0	0	0	1.00
Sanlam Competitors	3189	15216	16012	661	2.40

As a group, “Insurance” companies have a potential upside of 4.53%. Given Sanlam’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sanlam has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Sanlam and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sanlam	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sanlam Competitors	10.69%	10.83%	3.96%

Dividends

Sanlam pays an annual dividend of C$0.42 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Sanlam pays out 4.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Insurance” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.0% and pay out 30.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Sanlam is clearly a better dividend stock than its peers, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.1% of Sanlam shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.8% of shares of all “Insurance” companies are held by institutional investors. 13.8% of shares of all “Insurance” companies 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.

Summary

Sanlam peers beat Sanlam on 11 of the 13 factors compared.

About Sanlam

Sanlam Limited provides various financial solutions to individual, business, and institutional clients in South Africa, rest of Africa, and internationally. The company operates through Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Emerging Markets, Sanlam Investment Group, and Santam segments. It offers life, disability, severe illness, income protection, cancer, funeral, credit life, medical aid, gap cover, vehicle, house contents, buildings, all risk, buy and sell, business debt, key person, and group risk benefits insurance, as well as commercial insurance products consisting of office contents, theft, glass, personal accident, goods in transit, machinery breakdown, fire, business interruption, money, deterioration of stock, accidental damage, public liability, and electronic equipment. The company also provides financial planning and consulting solutions, as well as assistance on wills, trusts, and estates; retirement products; investment management solutions, such as unit trusts, investing for growth, international investments, education planning, sharetrading, and tax free savings; wealth management products; personal and home loans; credit cards; and online solutions. In addition, it provides payment and debit cards order collection; risk management solutions for businesses comprising asset protection, credit loan cover, debit loan cover, and business overhead protection; employee health and retirement plans; and business continuity services. Sanlam Limited was founded in 1918 and is headquartered in Bellville, South Africa.