Critical Comparison: Radian Group (NYSE:RDN) & Legal & General Group (OTCMKTS:LGGNY)

Radian Group (NYSE:RDN – Get Free Report) and Legal & General Group (OTCMKTS:LGGNY – Get Free Report) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Radian Group and Legal & General Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

95.3% of Radian Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Legal & General Group shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of Radian Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Radian Group and Legal & General Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

Radian Group presently has a consensus target price of $40.60, indicating a potential upside of 23.11%. Given Radian Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Radian Group is more favorable than Legal & General Group.

Volatility and Risk

Radian Group has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Legal & General Group has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Radian Group pays an annual dividend of $1.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Legal & General Group pays an annual dividend of $0.77 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. Radian Group pays out 24.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Radian Group has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Radian Group and Legal & General Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Radian Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Legal & General Group.

Summary

Radian Group beats Legal & General Group on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Radian Group

(Get Free Report)

Radian Group Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mortgage and real estate services business in the United States. It operates through two segments, Mortgage Insurance and Homegenius segments. The Mortgage Insurance segment aggregates, manages, and distributes U.S. mortgage credit risk for mortgage lending institutions and mortgage credit investors, through private mortgage insurance on residential first-lien mortgage loans; and other credit risk management solutions, including contract underwriting. The Homegenius segment offers title services, including a suite of insurance and non-insurance titles; tax and title data, centralized recording, document retrieval, and default curative title services; deed and property reports; closing and settlement services; mortgage underwriting and processing; escrow; appraisal management; and real estate brokerage. This segment also provides real estate valuation products and services; asset management services for managing real estate owned properties, which includes a web-based workflow solution; and a suite of real estate technology products and services to facilitate real estate transactions, such as proprietary platforms as a service solution. It serves mortgage originators, such as mortgage bankers, commercial banks, savings institutions, credit unions, and community banks; and consumers, mortgage lenders, mortgage and real estate investors, government-sponsored enterprises, real estate brokers and agents, and corporations for their employees. The company was formerly known as CMAC Investment Corp. and changed its name to Radian Group Inc. in June 1999. Radian Group Inc. was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

About Legal & General Group

(Get Free Report)

Legal & General Group Plc provides various insurance products and services in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates in Legal & General Retirement Institutional (LGRI), Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), Legal & General Capital (LGC), and Retail segments. The LGRI segment offers annuity contracts with guaranteed income for a specified time; and longevity insurance products. The LGIM segment offers index fund management; active fixed income funds and liquidity funds; active equity management; solution and liability driven investment; multi-asset funds; corporate pension scheme solutions; and real assets. The LGC segment provides investment strategy and implementation, and direct investment and structuring services. The Retail segment offers protection products, such as health, disability, critical illness, and accident; individual term assurance; reinsurance; savings and death benefits; annuities; lifetime mortgages; lifetime care plans; retirement interest only mortgages; and workplace savings scheme that provides corporate pension scheme solutions. It is also involved in the unit trust and institutional fund management, mortgage finance, treasury, building project and modular housing development, general insurance, and open-ended investment businesses. In addition, the company engages in the investment, operation, management, trading, and letting and operation of leased real estate; and construction of commercial buildings, financial intermediation, pension tracing and transfer, insurance agents and brokers, fund general partner, commercial lending, venture capital investing, contractual scheme, investor alternative investment fund, collective asset-management, and investment management activities; and provision of investment advisory, business information consultancy, and technology services. Legal & General Group Plc was founded in 1836 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.