Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) & Everest Group (NYSE:EG) Critical Review

Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) and Everest Group (NYSE:EG) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Fidelity National Financial has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Everest Group has a beta of 0.5, suggesting that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

81.2% of Fidelity National Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of Everest Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.5% of Fidelity National Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Everest 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Fidelity National Financial and Everest Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fidelity National Financial	0	1	4	0	2.80
Everest Group	0	6	5	1	2.58

Fidelity National Financial presently has a consensus price target of $71.20, indicating a potential upside of 18.77%. Everest Group has a consensus price target of $402.50, indicating a potential upside of 22.54%. Given Everest Group’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Everest Group is more favorable than Fidelity National Financial.

Profitability

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and Everest Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fidelity National Financial	7.93%	14.30%	1.28%
Everest Group	4.56%	5.89%	1.49%

Dividends

Fidelity National Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Everest Group pays an annual dividend of $8.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Fidelity National Financial pays out 50.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Everest Group pays out 42.5% 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. Fidelity National Financial has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Everest Group has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and Everest Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fidelity National Financial	$13.68 billion	1.19	$1.27 billion	$3.94	15.21
Everest Group	$17.28 billion	0.80	$1.37 billion	$18.84	17.43

Everest Group has higher revenue and earnings than Fidelity National Financial. Fidelity National Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Everest Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Everest Group beats Fidelity National Financial on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fidelity National Financial

Fidelity National Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various insurance products in the United States. The company operates through Title, F&G, and Corporate and Other segments. It offers title insurance, escrow, and other title related services, including trust activities, trustee sales guarantees, recordings and reconveyances, and home warranty products. The company also provides technology and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries; and mortgage transaction services, including title-related services and facilitation of production and management of mortgage loans. In addition, it offers annuity and life insurance products, such as deferred and immediate annuities, as well as indexed universal life insurance products; and funding agreements and pension risk transfer (PRT) solutions. Further, the company engages in the real estate brokerage business. Fidelity National Financial, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.

About Everest Group

Everest Group, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company operates through two segment, Insurance and Reinsurance. The Reinsurance segment writes property and casualty reinsurance; and specialty lines of business through reinsurance brokers, as well as directly with ceding companies in the United States, Bermuda, Ireland, Canada, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Insurance Operations segment writes property and casualty insurance directly, as well as through brokers, surplus lines, and general agents in the United States, Bermuda, Canada, Europe, South America, Singapore, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Chile, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Netherlands. The company also provides treaty and facultative reinsurance products; admitted and non-admitted insurance products; and accident and health, specialty underwriters, eversports and entertainment, and surety and credit, marine and aviation, as well as structured and property hybrid solutions. In addition, it offers commercial property and casualty insurance products through wholesale and retail brokers, surplus lines brokers, and program administrators. The company was formerly known as Everest Re Group, Ltd. and changed its name to Everest Group, Ltd. in July 2023.Everest Group, Ltd., was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.