Atlantic American (NASDAQ:AAME) versus Aflac (NYSE:AFL) Head to Head Survey

Atlantic American (NASDAQ:AAME) and Aflac (NYSE:AFL) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Atlantic American and Aflac, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Atlantic American	0	0	0	0	0.00
Aflac	2	9	3	0	2.07

Aflac has a consensus target price of $107.07, indicating a potential upside of 5.55%. Given Aflac’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Aflac is more favorable than Atlantic American.

Dividends

Atlantic American pays an annual dividend of $0.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Aflac pays an annual dividend of $2.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Atlantic American pays out -22.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aflac pays out 36.3% 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. Aflac has raised its dividend for 44 consecutive years. Aflac is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Atlantic American and Aflac”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Atlantic American	$188.23 million	0.21	-$4.27 million	($0.09)	-21.22
Aflac	$18.93 billion	2.90	$5.44 billion	$6.40	15.85

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

Risk & Volatility

Atlantic American has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aflac has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Atlantic American and Aflac’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Atlantic American	-0.77%	-2.25%	-0.59%
Aflac	21.27%	15.55%	3.30%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

5.5% of Atlantic American shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.4% of Aflac shares are owned by institutional investors. 80.1% of Atlantic American shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of Aflac shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Aflac beats Atlantic American on 15 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Atlantic American

Atlantic American Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides life and health, and property and casualty insurance products in the United States. It operates through American Southern and Bankers Fidelity segments. The company offers property and casualty insurance products, including commercial automobile insurance coverage for state governments, local municipalities, and other motor pools and fleets; general liability; and inland marine insurance products. It also provides surety bond coverage for subdivision construction; school bus contracts; and performance and payment bonds. In addition, the company offers individual and group whole life insurance products; Medicare supplement insurance products; and other accident and health insurance products comprising various individual and group policies for the payment of standard benefits for the treatment of diagnosed cancer and other critical illnesses, as well as various other products, such as short-term nursing facility care, accident only, hospital indemnity, and disability coverages. It markets its products through independent agents and brokers. The company was founded in 1937 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlantic American Corporation is a subsidiary of Atlantic American / Delta Group.

About Aflac

Aflac Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides supplemental health and life insurance products. The company operates through Aflac Japan and Aflac U.S. segments. The Aflac Japan segment offers cancer, medical, nursing care, work leave, GIFT, and whole and term life insurance products, as well as WAYS and child endowment plans under saving type insurance products in Japan. The Aflac U.S. segment provides cancer, accident, short-term disability, critical illness, hospital indemnity, dental, vision, long-term care and disability, and term and whole life insurance products in the United States. It sells its products through sales associates, brokers, independent corporate agencies, individual agencies, and affiliated corporate agencies. Aflac Incorporated was founded in 1955 and is headquartered in Columbus, Georgia.