Assurant (AIZ) Competitors

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) and The Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:HIG) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, community ranking, valuation, profitability, dividends and risk.

Do analysts prefer AIZ or HIG?

Assurant presently has a consensus price target of $228.67, suggesting a potential upside of 15.87%. The Hartford Financial Services Group has a consensus price target of $129.71, suggesting a potential upside of 3.52%. Given Assurant's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Assurant is more favorable than The Hartford Financial Services Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assurant	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83
The Hartford Financial Services Group	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of AIZ or HIG?

92.7% of Assurant shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.4% of The Hartford Financial Services Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Assurant shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of The Hartford Financial Services Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AIZ or HIG?

The Hartford Financial Services Group received 374 more outperform votes than Assurant when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.24% of users gave The Hartford Financial Services Group an outperform vote while only 57.66% of users gave Assurant an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Assurant	Outperform Votes 301 57.66%	Underperform Votes 221 42.34%
The Hartford Financial Services Group	Outperform Votes 675 66.24%	Underperform Votes 344 33.76%

Which has more risk and volatility, AIZ or HIG?

Assurant has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, The Hartford Financial Services Group has a beta of 0.71, suggesting that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is AIZ or HIG a better dividend stock?

Assurant pays an annual dividend of $3.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. The Hartford Financial Services Group pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Assurant pays out 24.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. The Hartford Financial Services Group 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 raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years and The Hartford Financial Services Group has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. The Hartford Financial Services Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, AIZ or HIG?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Assurant	$12.07B	0.83	$760.20M	$12.83	15.38
The Hartford Financial Services Group	$26.76B	1.33	$3.11B	$10.03	12.49

Is AIZ or HIG more profitable?

The Hartford Financial Services Group has a net margin of 11.72% compared to Assurant's net margin of 6.40%. The Hartford Financial Services Group's return on equity of 19.55% beat Assurant's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assurant	6.40%	17.25%	2.55%
The Hartford Financial Services Group	11.72%	19.55%	3.88%

Does the media favor AIZ or HIG?

In the previous week, The Hartford Financial Services Group had 5 more articles in the media than Assurant. MarketBeat recorded 10 mentions for The Hartford Financial Services Group and 5 mentions for Assurant. Assurant's average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat The Hartford Financial Services Group's score of 1.31 indicating that Assurant is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Assurant	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
The Hartford Financial Services Group	10 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

The Hartford Financial Services Group beats Assurant on 16 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.