Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) vs. Aegon (NYSE:AEG) Head to Head Review

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Aegon and Horace Mann Educators, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aegon	0	2	3	1	2.83
Horace Mann Educators	0	3	2	1	2.67

Horace Mann Educators has a consensus target price of $46.75, suggesting a potential downside of 0.25%. Given Horace Mann Educators’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Horace Mann Educators is more favorable than Aegon.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

4.3% of Aegon shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.3% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Aegon and Horace Mann Educators”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aegon	$10.65 billion	1.44	$744.48 million	($0.26)	-29.48
Horace Mann Educators	$1.60 billion	1.20	$102.80 million	$3.95	11.87

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

Dividends

Aegon pays an annual dividend of $0.38 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Horace Mann Educators pays an annual dividend of $1.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Aegon pays out -146.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Horace Mann Educators pays out 35.4% 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 raised its dividend for 17 consecutive years. Aegon is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Aegon has a beta of 0.79, meaning that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Horace Mann Educators has a beta of 0.08, meaning that its share price is 92% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Aegon and Horace Mann Educators’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aegon	N/A	N/A	N/A
Horace Mann Educators	9.79%	15.69%	1.44%

Summary

Horace Mann Educators beats Aegon on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aegon

Aegon Ltd. provides insurance, pensions, retirement, and asset management services in the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers life, accident, property and casualty, and health insurance; annuities, retirement plans, mutual funds, and stable value solutions; residential mortgage and digital baking services; and retail and institutional investment management solutions and retirement savings vehicles and strategies. It offers its products under the Aegon and Transamerica brands. Aegon Ltd. was founded in 1844 and is headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands.

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.