Critical Contrast: Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV) & SelectQuote (NYSE:SLQT)

SelectQuote (NYSE:SLQT) and Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for SelectQuote and Travelers Companies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SelectQuote	2	1	0	1	2.00
Travelers Companies	5	12	4	4	2.28

SelectQuote currently has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 637.10%. Travelers Companies has a consensus target price of $354.53, suggesting a potential downside of 2.07%. Given SelectQuote’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe SelectQuote is more favorable than Travelers Companies.

Risk and Volatility

SelectQuote has a beta of 1.7, indicating that its share price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Travelers Companies has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SelectQuote and Travelers Companies”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SelectQuote	$1.62 billion	0.04	$62.19 million	($0.08)	-5.09
Travelers Companies	$48.83 billion	1.55	$6.29 billion	$37.34	9.69

Travelers Companies has higher revenue and earnings than SelectQuote. SelectQuote is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Travelers Companies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares SelectQuote and Travelers Companies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SelectQuote	3.84%	19.70%	5.33%
Travelers Companies	16.95%	25.41%	5.75%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

34.6% of SelectQuote shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.5% of Travelers Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.1% of SelectQuote shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Travelers Companies shares are owned 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

Travelers Companies beats SelectQuote on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SelectQuote

SelectQuote, Inc. operates a technology-enabled, direct-to-consumer distribution platform that sells a range of insurance products and healthcare services in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Senior; Life; and Auto & Home. It distributes senior health policies, such as medicare advantage, medicare supplement, medicare part D, and other ancillary senior health insurance related products, including prescription drugs, dental, vision, and hearing plans; life insurance products, such as term life, final expense, and other ancillary products, including critical illness, accidental death, and juvenile insurance; homeowners, auto, dwelling fire, and other ancillary insurance products; and non-commercial auto and home property, and casualty policies. The company also provides SelectRx, an accredited patient-centered pharmacy home pharmacy, which offers essential prescription medications, OTC medications, customized medication packaging, medication therapy management, and long-term pharmacy care; and population health that helps members understand the benefits available under their health plans, and contracts with insurance carriers. SelectQuote, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.

About Travelers Companies

The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers workers’ compensation, commercial automobile and property, general liability, commercial multi-peril, employers’ liability, public and product liability, professional indemnity, marine, aviation, onshore and offshore energy, construction, terrorism, personal accident, and kidnap and ransom insurance products. This segment operates through select accounts, which serve small businesses; commercial accounts that serve mid-sized businesses; national accounts, which serve large companies; and national property and other that serve large and mid-sized customers, commercial trucking industry, and agricultural businesses, as well as markets and distributes its products through brokers, wholesale agents, and program managers. The Bond & Specialty Insurance segment provides surety, fidelity, management and professional liability, and other property and casualty coverages and related risk management services through independent agencies and brokers. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners’ insurance to individuals through independent agencies and brokers. The Travelers Companies, Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.