Head to Head Review: Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) vs. Bowhead Specialty (NYSE:BOW)

Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) and Bowhead Specialty (NYSE:BOW) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

28.0% of Donegal Group shares are held by institutional investors. 6.6% of Donegal Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Donegal Group and Bowhead Specialty, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Donegal Group	0	1	0	0	2.00
Bowhead Specialty	0	3	2	0	2.40

Donegal Group currently has a consensus target price of $15.00, indicating a potential downside of 10.18%. Bowhead Specialty has a consensus target price of $32.00, indicating a potential downside of 15.34%. Given Donegal Group’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Donegal Group is more favorable than Bowhead Specialty.

Profitability

This table compares Donegal Group and Bowhead Specialty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Donegal Group	2.54%	3.95%	0.84%
Bowhead Specialty	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Donegal Group and Bowhead Specialty”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Donegal Group	$927.34 million	0.61	$4.43 million	$0.76	21.97
Bowhead Specialty	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Donegal Group has higher revenue and earnings than Bowhead Specialty.

Summary

Donegal Group beats Bowhead Specialty on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Donegal Group

Donegal Group Inc., an insurance holding company, provides property and casualty insurance to businesses and individuals. It operates through three segments: Investment Function, Personal Lines of Insurance, and Commercial Lines of Insurance. The company offers private passenger automobile policies that provide protection against liability for bodily injury and property damage arising from automobile accidents, as well as protection against loss from damage to automobiles; and homeowners policies, which provide coverage for damage to residences and their contents from a range of perils, including fire, lightning, windstorm, and theft, as well as liability of the insured arising from injury to other persons or their property. It also offers commercial automobile policies that provide protection against liability for bodily injury and property damage arising from automobile accidents and protection against loss from damage to automobiles owned by the insured; commercial multi-peril policies that provide protection to businesses against combining liability and physical damage coverages; and workers’ compensation policies, which provide benefits to employees for injuries sustained during employment. The company markets its insurance products primarily to Mid-Atlantic, Midwestern, New England, Southern, and Southwestern regions through independent insurance agencies. Donegal Group Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is based in Marietta, Pennsylvania. Donegal Group Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Donegal Mutual Insurance Company.

About Bowhead Specialty

Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. provides specialty property and casualty insurance products in the United States. It underwrites casualty insurance solutions for risks in the construction, distribution, heavy manufacturing, real estate, and hospitality segments; professional liability insurance solutions for financial institutions, private and public directors and officers liability insurance, errors and omissions liability insurance, and cyber segments; and healthcare solutions for hospitals, senior care providers, managed care organizations, miscellaneous medical facilities, and healthcare management liability segments. The company distributes its products through distribution partners in wholesale and retail markets. Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. was formerly known as Bowhead Holdings Inc. and changed its name to Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. in March 2024. The company was founded in 2020 and is based in New York, New York. Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Bowhead Insurance Holdings LP.