Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Takes $320,000 Position in Horace Mann Educators Co. (NYSE:HMN)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Horace Mann Educators Co. (NYSE:HMN) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 9,776 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $320,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in Horace Mann Educators by 0.7% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,076,433 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $254,178,000 after purchasing an additional 40,134 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Horace Mann Educators by 0.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,033,083 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $177,618,000 after purchasing an additional 34,629 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Horace Mann Educators by 43.7% during the third quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,083,838 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $119,983,000 after purchasing an additional 1,241,193 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE grew its holdings in Horace Mann Educators by 11.9% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,756,943 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $58,822,000 after purchasing an additional 186,368 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Horace Mann Educators by 1.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,553,176 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $59,611,000 after purchasing an additional 28,539 shares during the period. 99.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on HMN. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Horace Mann Educators from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $40.00 in a report on Monday, January 29th. StockNews.com lowered Horace Mann Educators from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday. TheStreet upgraded Horace Mann Educators from a “c” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Horace Mann Educators from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 5th.

Horace Mann Educators Trading Up 2.7 %

NYSE:HMN opened at $35.42 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.79 and a beta of 0.28. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $35.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.92. Horace Mann Educators Co. has a 1 year low of $27.81 and a 1 year high of $38.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.09 and a quick ratio of 0.09.

Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The insurance provider reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $402.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $394.40 million. Horace Mann Educators had a return on equity of 5.71% and a net margin of 3.02%. As a group, analysts expect that Horace Mann Educators Co. will post 3.15 EPS for the current year.

Horace Mann Educators Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.84%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Horace Mann Educators’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. Horace Mann Educators’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 125.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Marita Zuraitis sold 1,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $46,250.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 304,483 shares in the company, valued at $11,265,871. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Marita Zuraitis sold 1,250 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.00, for a total value of $46,250.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 304,483 shares in the company, valued at $11,265,871. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Kimberly A. Johnson sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.00, for a total value of $180,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 21,674 shares in the company, valued at approximately $780,264. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 74,327 shares of company stock worth $2,728,271. Corporate insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

About Horace Mann Educators

Horace Mann Educators Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an insurance holding company in the United States. The company operates through Property & Casualty, Life & Retirement, and Supplemental & Group Benefits segments. Its Property & Casualty segment offers insurance products, including private passenger auto insurance, residential home insurance, and personal umbrella insurance; and provides auto coverages including liability and collision, and property coverage for homeowners and renters.