Allstate (NYSE:ALL) versus Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.B) Head to Head Review

Crawford & Company (NYSE:CRD.B) and Allstate (NYSE:ALL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Crawford & Company and Allstate, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Crawford & Company	0	0	0	1	4.00
Allstate	4	9	5	4	2.41

Allstate has a consensus target price of $263.90, suggesting a potential upside of 4.11%. Given Allstate’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Allstate is more favorable than Crawford & Company.

Profitability

This table compares Crawford & Company and Allstate’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Crawford & Company	1.81%	28.15%	6.51%
Allstate	18.97%	41.64%	9.82%

Volatility and Risk

Crawford & Company has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Allstate has a beta of 0.15, meaning that its stock price is 85% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Crawford & Company pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Allstate pays an annual dividend of $4.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Crawford & Company pays out 66.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Allstate pays out 8.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Allstate has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

11.0% of Crawford & Company shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 76.5% of Allstate shares are held by institutional investors. 51.0% of Crawford & Company shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Allstate shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Crawford & Company and Allstate”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Crawford & Company	$1.31 billion	0.44	$19.63 million	$0.48	24.50
Allstate	$67.69 billion	0.95	$10.28 billion	$50.08	5.06

Allstate has higher revenue and earnings than Crawford & Company. Allstate is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Crawford & Company, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Allstate beats Crawford & Company on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Crawford & Company

Crawford & Co. engages in the provision of claims management and outsourcing solutions to carriers, brokers, and corporates. It operates through the following segments: Crawford Loss Adjusting, Crawford TPA Solutions, and Crawford Platform Solutions. The Crawford Loss Adjusting segment consists of adjusting services provided to insurance companies and self-insured entities related to property and casualty losses caused by physical damage to commercial and residential real property and certain types of personal property. The Crawford TPA Solutions segment provides third party administration for workers’ compensation, auto and liability, disability absence management, medical management, and accident and health to corporations, brokers, and insurers worldwide. The Crawford Platform Solutions segment is involved in the management of contractor networks and the provision of claims management services to insurance companies and self-insured entities related to property, casualty, and catastrophic losses. The company was founded by Jim Crawford in 1941 and is headquartered in Peachtree Corners, GA.

About Allstate

The Allstate Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides property and casualty, and other insurance products in the United States and Canada. It operates in five segments: Allstate Protection; Protection Services; Allstate Health and Benefits; Run-off Property-Liability; and Corporate and Other segments. The Allstate Protection segment offers private passenger auto and homeowners insurance; other personal lines products; and commercial lines products through agents, contact centers, and online. The Protection Services segment provides consumer product protection; protection and insurance products, including vehicle service contracts, guaranteed asset protection, road hazard tire and wheel, and paintless dent repair protection; and roadside assistance, device and mobile data collection services, and analytic solutions using automotive telematics information, as well as identity theft protection and remediation services. This segment also offers its products under various brands, including Allstate Protection Plans, Allstate Dealer Services, Allstate Roadside, Arity, Avail, and Allstate Identity Protection. The Allstate Health and Benefits segment provides life, accident, critical illness, short-term disability, and other health insurance products; stop-loss and fully insured group health products to employers; and short-term medical and medicare supplement insurance to individuals. The Run-off Property-Liability segment offers property and casualty insurance coverage that primarily relates to policies written during the 1960s through the mid-1980s. The Corporate and Other segment provides debt services, as well as non-insurance operations. It sells its products through agents, independent agents, call and contact centers, retailers, direct to consumer, wholesale partners, and affinity groups, as well as through online and mobile applications. The Allstate Corporation was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.