Head to Head Survey: Sampo (OTCMKTS:SAXPY) & W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB)

Sampo (OTCMKTS:SAXPY) and W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Sampo has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W.R. Berkley has a beta of 0.39, suggesting that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sampo and W.R. Berkley”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sampo	$2.47 billion	50.26	$1.25 billion	$1.01	22.83
W.R. Berkley	$13.64 billion	1.97	$1.76 billion	$4.39	16.12

W.R. Berkley has higher revenue and earnings than Sampo. W.R. Berkley is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sampo, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Sampo and W.R. Berkley, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sampo	0	0	0	1	4.00
W.R. Berkley	1	9	2	1	2.23

W.R. Berkley has a consensus price target of $72.5385, suggesting a potential upside of 2.53%. Given W.R. Berkley’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe W.R. Berkley is more favorable than Sampo.

Profitability

This table compares Sampo and W.R. Berkley’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sampo	N/A	19.63%	5.61%
W.R. Berkley	12.32%	18.83%	4.01%

Dividends

Sampo pays an annual dividend of $0.31 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. W.R. Berkley pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Sampo pays out 30.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. W.R. Berkley pays out 8.2% 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. W.R. Berkley has raised its dividend for 23 consecutive years.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.0% of Sampo shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.8% of W.R. Berkley shares are held by institutional investors. 23.3% of W.R. Berkley shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

W.R. Berkley beats Sampo on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sampo

Sampo Oyj, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of non-life insurance products and services in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and the United Kingdom. The company operates through If, Topdanmark, Hastings, Mandatum, and Holding segments. It offers property, casualty, liability, accident, sickness, household, homeowner, motor, travel, marine, aviation, transport, forest, livestock, health, workers compensation, car, van, and bike insurance services, as well as reinsurance services. The company was founded in 1909 and is based in Helsinki, Finland.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines. This segment also provides accident and health insurance and reinsurance products; insurance for commercial risks; casualty and specialty environmental products; specialized insurance coverages for fine arts and jewelry exposures; excess liability and inland marine coverage for small to medium-sized insureds; and commercial general liability, umbrella, professional liability, directors and officers, commercial property, and surety products, as well as products for technology, and life sciences and travel industries. In addition, this segment offers cyber risk solutions; crime and fidelity insurance products; medical professional coverages; workers' compensation insurance products; general insurance; personal lines insurance solutions, including home, condo/co-op, auto, and collectibles; automobile, law enforcement, public officials and educator's legal, and employment practices liability, as well as incidental medical and property and crime insurance products; at-risk and alternative risk insurance program management services; professional liability; energy and marine risks; and provides insurance products to the Lloyd's marketplace. The Reinsurance & Monoline Excess segment provides treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions; property and casualty reinsurance; facultative reinsurance products include automatic, semi-automatic and individual risk assumed reinsurance; and turnkey products such as cyber, employment practices liability insurance, liquor liability insurance and violent events. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.