Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) & Suncorp Group (OTCMKTS:SNMCY) Critical Analysis

Suncorp Group (OTCMKTS:SNMCY) and Donegal Group (NASDAQ:DGICA) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Suncorp Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.38	34.92
Donegal Group	$961.31 million	0.49	$4.43 million	$0.16	88.13

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.1% of Suncorp Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 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 endowments, hedge funds 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 recommmendations for Suncorp Group and Donegal Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Suncorp Group	0	0	0	0	N/A
Donegal Group	0	1	0	0	2.00

Donegal Group has a consensus price target of $15.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.38%. Given Donegal Group’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Donegal Group is more favorable than Suncorp Group.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Suncorp Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Donegal Group	0.76%	0.89%	0.19%

Summary

Donegal Group beats Suncorp Group on 8 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Suncorp Group

Suncorp Group Limited provides insurance and banking products and services to retail, corporate, and commercial customers in Australia and New Zealand. The company operates through Insurance (Australia), Suncorp Bank, and Suncorp New Zealand segments. The Insurance (Australia) segment provides general insurance products and services, including home and contents, motor, marine, travel, commercial property, industrial special risk, public liability and professional indemnity, workers' compensation, and compulsory third-party products, as well as distributes life insurance products. The Suncorp Bank segment offers banking services, such as commercial, agribusiness, small business, and home loans; savings and transaction accounts; foreign exchange services; and treasury products and services. The Suncorp New Zealand segment provides general and life insurance products comprising home and contents, motor, commercial property, public liability and professional indemnity, life, trauma, total and permanent disablement, and income protection. The company was formerly known as Suncorp-Metway Limited and changed its name to Suncorp Group Limited in December 2010. The company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Brisbane, Australia.

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.