Head-To-Head Review: Safety Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SAFT) vs. Willis Towers Watson Public (NASDAQ:WTW)

Willis Towers Watson Public (NASDAQ:WTW) and Safety Insurance Group (NASDAQ:SAFT) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Willis Towers Watson Public has a beta of 0.42, meaning that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Safety Insurance Group has a beta of 0.17, meaning that its stock price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Willis Towers Watson Public and Safety Insurance Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Willis Towers Watson Public	15.49%	22.19%	6.00%
Safety Insurance Group	5.33%	7.23%	2.58%

Dividends

Willis Towers Watson Public pays an annual dividend of $3.84 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Safety Insurance Group pays an annual dividend of $3.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Willis Towers Watson Public pays out 23.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Safety Insurance Group pays out 79.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Willis Towers Watson Public has increased its dividend for 8 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Willis Towers Watson Public and Safety Insurance Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Willis Towers Watson Public	0	7	10	1	2.67
Safety Insurance Group	0	1	1	0	2.50

Willis Towers Watson Public currently has a consensus price target of $369.38, indicating a potential upside of 7.45%. Given Willis Towers Watson Public’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Willis Towers Watson Public is more favorable than Safety Insurance Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

93.1% of Willis Towers Watson Public shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.0% of Safety Insurance Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Willis Towers Watson Public shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.2% of Safety Insurance 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Willis Towers Watson Public and Safety Insurance Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Willis Towers Watson Public	$9.71 billion	3.29	$1.60 billion	$16.26	21.14
Safety Insurance Group	$1.26 billion	1.20	$99.25 million	$4.64	22.34

Willis Towers Watson Public has higher revenue and earnings than Safety Insurance Group. Willis Towers Watson Public is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Safety Insurance Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Willis Towers Watson Public beats Safety Insurance Group on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Willis Towers Watson Public

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company operates as an advisory, broking, and solutions company worldwide. It operates through two segments: Health, Wealth & Career and Risk & Broking. The company offers strategy and design consulting, plan management service and support, broking and administration services for health, wellbeing, and other group benefit program, including medical, dental, disability, life, voluntary benefits and other coverages; actuarial support, plan design, and administrative services for pension and retirement savings plans; retirement consulting services and solutions; and integrated solutions that consists of investment discretionary management, pension administration, core actuarial, and communication and change management assistance services. It also provides advice, data, software, and products to address clients' total rewards and talent issues; and risk advice, insurance brokerage, and consulting services in the areas of property and casualty, affinity, risk and analytics, aerospace, construction, global markets direct & facultative, financial, executive and professional risks, financial solutions, crisis management, surety, marine, and natural resources. In addition, the company offers integrated solutions that consists of investment discretionary management, pension administration, core actuarial, and communication and change management assistance services; and software and technology, risk and capital management, products and product pricing, financial and regulatory reporting, financial and capital modeling, M&A, outsourcing, and business management services. The company was formerly known as Willis Group Holdings Public Limited Company and changed its name to Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company in January 2016. Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company was founded in 1828 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

About Safety Insurance Group

Safety Insurance Group, Inc. provides private passenger and commercial automobile, and homeowner insurance in the United States. The company’s private passenger automobile policies offer coverage for bodily injury and property damage to others, no-fault personal injury coverage for the insured/insured’s car occupants, and physical damage coverage for an insured’s own vehicle for collision or other perils. It also provides commercial automobile policies that offer insurance for commercial vehicles used for business purposes, including private passenger-type vehicles, trucks, tractors and trailers, insure individual vehicles, and commercial fleets; and homeowners policies, which provide coverage for homes, condominiums, and apartments for losses to a dwelling and its contents from various perils, and coverage for liability to others arising from ownership or occupancy. In addition, the company offers business owners policies that cover apartments and residential condominiums, restaurants, office condominiums, processing and services businesses, special trade contractors, and wholesalers. Further, it provides personal umbrella policies, which provide personal excess liability coverage over and above the limits of individual automobile, watercraft, and homeowner’s insurance policies; and commercial umbrella, which offers an excess liability product to clients, as well as underwrites dwelling fire insurance for non-owner-occupied residences. Additionally, the company offers inland marine coverage for homeowners and business owner policies, and watercraft coverage for small and medium sized pleasure crafts. It distributes its products through independent agents. The company was formerly known as Safety Holdings Inc and changed its name to Safety Insurance Group, Inc. in April 2002. Safety Insurance Group, Inc. was founded in 1979 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.