Reviewing Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU) & Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN)

Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) and Prudential Financial (NYSE:PRU) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Dividends

Horace Mann Educators pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Prudential Financial pays an annual dividend of $5.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Horace Mann Educators pays out 35.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Prudential Financial pays out 74.2% 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. Horace Mann Educators has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years and Prudential Financial has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Horace Mann Educators and Prudential Financial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Horace Mann Educators	$1.60 billion	1.11	$102.80 million	$3.95	11.01
Prudential Financial	$68.05 billion	0.57	$2.73 billion	$7.28	15.34

Prudential Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Horace Mann Educators. Horace Mann Educators is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Prudential Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Horace Mann Educators and Prudential Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horace Mann Educators	9.79%	15.69%	1.44%
Prudential Financial	4.65%	16.60%	0.67%

Volatility & Risk

Horace Mann Educators has a beta of 0.08, indicating that its share price is 92% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Prudential Financial has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Horace Mann Educators and Prudential Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Horace Mann Educators	0	3	2	1	2.67
Prudential Financial	1	10	1	0	2.00

Horace Mann Educators presently has a consensus target price of $46.75, indicating a potential upside of 7.52%. Prudential Financial has a consensus target price of $119.50, indicating a potential upside of 7.00%. Given Horace Mann Educators’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Horace Mann Educators is more favorable than Prudential Financial.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.3% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.8% of Prudential Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Prudential Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Horace Mann Educators beats Prudential Financial on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The Life & Retirement segment markets tax-qualified fixed, fixed indexed, and variable annuities; and internal revenue code for educator, which allows public school employees and employees of other tax-exempt organizations, such as not-for-profit private schools, to utilize pretax income to make periodic contributions to a qualified retirement plan. The Supplemental & Group Benefits segment offers employer-sponsored products including accident, critical illness, limited-benefit fixed indemnity insurance, term life, and short-term and long-term disability, as well as worksite direct products, such as supplemental heart, cancer, disability, and accident coverage. The company was founded in 1945 and is headquartered in Springfield, Illinois.

About Prudential Financial

Prudential Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance, investment management, and other financial products and services in the United States and internationally. It operates through PGIM, Retirement Strategies, Group Insurance, Individual Life, and International Businesses segments. The PGIM segment offers investment management services and solutions related to public fixed income, public equity, real estate debt and equity, private credit and other alternatives, and multi-asset class strategies to institutional and retail clients, as well as its general account. The Retirement Strategies segment provides a range of retirement investment, and income products and services to retirement plan sponsors in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors; develops and distributes individual variable and fixed annuity products. The Group Insurance segment offers various group life, and long-term and short-term group disability, as well as group corporate-, bank-, and trust-owned life insurance in the United States primarily for institutional clients for use in connection with employee and membership benefits plans; sells accidental death and dismemberment, and other supplemental health solutions; and plan administration services in connection with its insurance coverages. The Individual Life segment develops and distributes variable life, universal life, and term life insurance products. The International Businesses segment develops and distributes life insurance, retirement products, investment products, and certain accident and health products; and advisory services. The company provides its products and services to individual and institutional customers through its proprietary and third-party distribution networks. Prudential Financial, Inc. was founded in 1875 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.