Critical Contrast: Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) & Fidelity National Financial (NYSE:FNF)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Horace Mann Educators and Fidelity National Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Horace Mann Educators	0	1	2	1	3.00
Fidelity National Financial	0	1	3	0	2.75

Horace Mann Educators currently has a consensus target price of $47.33, indicating a potential upside of 11.37%. Fidelity National Financial has a consensus target price of $68.25, indicating a potential upside of 20.25%. Given Fidelity National Financial’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Fidelity National Financial is more favorable than Horace Mann Educators.

Volatility & Risk

Horace Mann Educators has a beta of 0.06, meaning that its share price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fidelity National Financial has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horace Mann Educators	9.53%	13.92%	1.31%
Fidelity National Financial	8.34%	15.06%	1.33%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

99.3% of Horace Mann Educators shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.2% of Fidelity National Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 4.0% of Horace Mann Educators shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.5% of Fidelity National Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Horace Mann Educators pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Fidelity National Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Horace Mann Educators pays out 35.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fidelity National Financial pays out 50.1% 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 Fidelity National Financial has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Horace Mann Educators and Fidelity National Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Horace Mann Educators	$1.70 billion	1.02	$162.10 million	$3.90	10.90
Fidelity National Financial	$13.72 billion	1.16	$1.27 billion	$4.15	13.68

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

Summary

Fidelity National Financial beats Horace Mann Educators on 12 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 Fidelity National Financial

Fidelity National Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various insurance products in the United States. The company operates through Title, F&G, and Corporate and Other segments. It offers title insurance, escrow, and other title related services, including trust activities, trustee sales guarantees, recordings and reconveyances, and home warranty products. The company also provides technology and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries; and mortgage transaction services, including title-related services and facilitation of production and management of mortgage loans. In addition, it offers annuity and life insurance products, such as deferred and immediate annuities, as well as indexed universal life insurance products; and funding agreements and pension risk transfer (PRT) solutions. Further, the company engages in the real estate brokerage business. Fidelity National Financial, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.