Loews (NYSE:L) versus Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) Financial Analysis

Loews (NYSE:L) and Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Loews and Assurant”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Loews	$18.45 billion	1.24	$1.67 billion	$7.98	13.92
Assurant	$12.81 billion	0.88	$872.70 million	$16.97	13.32

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

Profitability

This table compares Loews and Assurant’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Loews	9.03%	8.86%	1.96%
Assurant	6.81%	18.65%	2.92%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

58.3% of Loews shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.7% of Assurant shares are held by institutional investors. 19.0% of Loews shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Assurant shares are held by 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.

Volatility & Risk

Loews has a beta of 0.59, indicating that its stock price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assurant has a beta of 0.56, indicating that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Loews pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Assurant pays an annual dividend of $3.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Loews pays out 3.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Assurant pays out 20.7% 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. Assurant has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years. Assurant is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Loews and Assurant, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Loews	0	0	0	1	4.00
Assurant	0	2	8	0	2.80

Assurant has a consensus price target of $256.83, suggesting a potential upside of 13.59%. Given Assurant’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Assurant is more favorable than Loews.

Summary

Loews beats Assurant on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Loews

Loews Corporation provides commercial property and casualty insurance in the United States and internationally. The company offers specialty insurance products, such as management and professional liability, and other coverage products; surety and fidelity bonds; property insurance products that include standard and excess property, marine and boiler, and machinery coverages; and casualty insurance products, such as workers' compensation, general and product liability, and commercial auto, surplus, and umbrella coverages. It also provides loss-sensitive insurance programs; and warranty, risk management, information, and claims administration services. The company markets its insurance products and services through independent agents, brokers, and managing general underwriters. In addition, the company is involved in the transportation and storage of natural gas and natural gas liquids, and hydrocarbons through natural gas pipelines covering approximately 13,455 miles of interconnected pipelines; 855 miles of NGL pipelines in Louisiana and Texas; 14 underground storage fields with an aggregate gas capacity of approximately 199.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas; and eleven salt dome caverns and related brine infrastructure for providing brine supply services. Further, the company operates a chain of 25 hotels; and develops, manufactures, and markets a range of extrusion blow-molded and injection molded plastic containers for customers in the pharmaceutical, dairy, household chemicals, food/nutraceuticals, industrial/specialty chemicals, and water and beverage/juice industries, as well as manufactures commodity and differentiated plastic resins from recycled plastic materials. Loews Corporation was incorporated in 1969 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Assurant

Assurant, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services. The Global Housing segment provides lender-placed homeowners, manufactured housing, and flood insurance; renters insurance and related products; and voluntary manufactured housing, and condominium and homeowners insurance products. The company was formerly known as Fortis, Inc. and changed its name to Assurant, Inc. in February 2004. Assurant, Inc. was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.