The Hartford Financial Services Group (HIG) Competitors

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

Do analysts prefer AIG or HIG?

American International Group presently has a consensus target price of $88.12, suggesting a potential upside of 4.88%. The Hartford Financial Services Group has a consensus target price of $129.71, suggesting a potential downside of 1.09%. Given American International Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe American International Group is more favorable than The Hartford Financial Services Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American International Group	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.61
The Hartford Financial Services Group	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.60

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, AIG or HIG?

The Hartford Financial Services Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than American International Group. American International Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than The Hartford Financial Services Group, 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
American International Group	$27.28B	1.78	-$1.40B	-$2.66	-31.59
The Hartford Financial Services Group	$26.76B	1.39	$3.11B	$10.03	13.07

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

90.6% of American International Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.4% of The Hartford Financial Services Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of American International Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% 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 stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is AIG or HIG a better dividend stock?

American International Group pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. The Hartford Financial Services Group pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. American International Group pays out -67.7% 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. American International Group has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years and The Hartford Financial Services Group has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. American International Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is AIG or HIG more profitable?

The Hartford Financial Services Group has a net margin of 11.72% compared to American International Group's net margin of -4.25%. The Hartford Financial Services Group's return on equity of 19.55% beat American International Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American International Group	-4.25%	8.01%	1.39%
The Hartford Financial Services Group	11.72%	19.55%	3.88%

Which has more risk & volatility, AIG or HIG?

American International Group has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, The Hartford Financial Services Group has a beta of 0.7, meaning that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AIG or HIG?

American International Group received 210 more outperform votes than The Hartford Financial Services Group when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.24% of users gave The Hartford Financial Services Group an outperform vote while only 64.46% of users gave American International Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
American International Group	Outperform Votes 885 64.46%	Underperform Votes 488 35.54%
The Hartford Financial Services Group	Outperform Votes 675 66.24%	Underperform Votes 344 33.76%

Does the media prefer AIG or HIG?

In the previous week, American International Group had 5 more articles in the media than The Hartford Financial Services Group. MarketBeat recorded 32 mentions for American International Group and 27 mentions for The Hartford Financial Services Group. The Hartford Financial Services Group's average media sentiment score of 1.33 beat American International Group's score of 1.19 indicating that The Hartford Financial Services Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American International Group	22 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
The Hartford Financial Services Group	19 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

The Hartford Financial Services Group beats American International Group on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.