HIG vs. L, AFG, AIG, ACGL, CINF, EG, ALL, CNA, RNR, and KNSL
Should you be buying The Hartford Financial Services Group stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of The Hartford Financial Services Group include Loews (L), American Financial Group (AFG), American International Group (AIG), Arch Capital Group (ACGL), Cincinnati Financial (CINF), Everest Group (EG), Allstate (ALL), CNA Financial (CNA), RenaissanceRe (RNR), and Kinsale Capital Group (KNSL). These companies are all part of the "fire, marine, & casualty insurance" industry.
Loews (NYSE:L) and The Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:HIG) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, earnings and community ranking.
The Hartford Financial Services Group has a net margin of 10.21% compared to The Hartford Financial Services Group's net margin of 9.02%. Loews' return on equity of 19.82% beat The Hartford Financial Services Group's return on equity.
In the previous week, Loews had 1 more articles in the media than The Hartford Financial Services Group. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Loews and 6 mentions for The Hartford Financial Services Group. Loews' average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat The Hartford Financial Services Group's score of 0.56 indicating that The Hartford Financial Services Group is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
The Hartford Financial Services Group received 377 more outperform votes than Loews when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.91% of users gave The Hartford Financial Services Group an outperform vote while only 60.67% of users gave Loews an outperform vote.
58.3% of Loews shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.4% of The Hartford Financial Services Group shares are held by institutional investors. 18.7% of Loews 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 company is poised for long-term growth.
Loews has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, The Hartford Financial Services Group has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Loews presently has a consensus target price of $170.00, indicating a potential upside of 121.33%. The Hartford Financial Services Group has a consensus target price of $105.56, indicating a potential upside of 5.71%. Given The Hartford Financial Services Group's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Loews is more favorable than The Hartford Financial Services Group.
Loews pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. The Hartford Financial Services Group pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Loews pays out 4.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. The Hartford Financial Services Group pays out 23.5% 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. The Hartford Financial Services Group has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years. The Hartford Financial Services Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
The Hartford Financial Services Group has higher revenue and earnings than Loews. Loews 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.
Summary
The Hartford Financial Services Group beats Loews on 16 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding HIG and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
The Hartford Financial Services Group Competitors List
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