Head to Head Survey: Bowhead Specialty (NYSE:BOW) and James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR)

James River Group (NASDAQ:JRVR) 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 analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

95.2% of James River Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.2% of James River Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for James River Group and Bowhead Specialty, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
James River Group	1	2	3	0	2.33
Bowhead Specialty	0	3	2	0	2.40

James River Group currently has a consensus price target of $11.17, indicating a potential upside of 69.45%. Bowhead Specialty has a consensus price target of $29.20, indicating a potential upside of 0.27%. Given James River Group’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe James River Group is more favorable than Bowhead Specialty.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares James River Group and Bowhead Specialty”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
James River Group	$817.84 million	0.30	-$107.68 million	($2.09)	-3.15
Bowhead Specialty	$348.44 million	2.63	N/A	N/A	N/A

Bowhead Specialty has lower revenue, but higher earnings than James River Group.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
James River Group	-12.79%	11.66%	1.24%
Bowhead Specialty	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

James River Group beats Bowhead Specialty on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About James River Group

James River Group Holdings, Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides specialty insurance services. It operates through Excess and Surplus Lines, and Specialty Admitted Insurance segments. The Excess and Surplus Lines segment underwrites liability and property insurance in the United States Puerto Rice, and the United States Virgin Islands. This segment distributes its insurance policies primarily through wholesale insurance brokers. The Specialty Admitted Insurance segment provides insurance for fronting, program administrators, managing general agents, and independent retail agents. James River Group Holdings, Ltd. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Pembroke, Bermuda.

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.