Goosehead Insurance (NASDAQ:GSHD) & Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) Critical Review

Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF) and Goosehead Insurance (NASDAQ:GSHD) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Fidelity National Financial and Goosehead Insurance, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fidelity National Financial	0	2	2	0	2.50
Goosehead Insurance	0	6	7	0	2.54

Fidelity National Financial currently has a consensus target price of $68.33, indicating a potential upside of 49.33%. Goosehead Insurance has a consensus target price of $77.60, indicating a potential upside of 88.81%. Given Goosehead Insurance’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Goosehead Insurance is more favorable than Fidelity National Financial.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fidelity National Financial	4.17%	15.06%	1.30%
Goosehead Insurance	7.62%	-21.31%	7.79%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Fidelity National Financial and Goosehead Insurance”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	$14.45 billion	0.86	$602.00 million	$2.13	21.48
Goosehead Insurance	$365.30 million	4.12	$27.83 million	$1.04	39.52

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

Volatility and Risk

Fidelity National Financial has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Goosehead Insurance has a beta of 1.57, suggesting that its share price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

81.2% of Fidelity National Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 5.5% of Fidelity National Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 48.4% of Goosehead Insurance shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Goosehead Insurance beats Fidelity National Financial on 9 of the 14 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 Goosehead Insurance

Goosehead Insurance, Inc. operates as a holding company for Goosehead Financial, LLC that engages in the provision of personal lines insurance agency services in the United States. The company offers homeowner’s, automotive, dwelling property, flood, wind, earthquake, excess liability or umbrella, motorcycle, recreational vehicle, general liability, property, and life insurance products and services. As of December 31, 2023, it operated 1,415 franchise locations. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Westlake, Texas.