HIG vs. L, AFG, AIG, ACGL, WRB, EG, CINF, ALL, CNA, and RNR
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), W. R. Berkley (WRB), Everest Group (EG), Cincinnati Financial (CINF), Allstate (ALL), CNA Financial (CNA), and RenaissanceRe (RNR). These companies are all part of the "fire, marine, & casualty insurance" industry.
The Hartford Financial Services Group (NYSE:HIG) and Loews (NYSE:L) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.
The Hartford Financial Services Group pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Loews pays an annual dividend of $0.25 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.3%. The Hartford Financial Services Group pays out 21.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Loews pays out 4.0% 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 a net margin of 10.87% compared to Loews' net margin of 9.02%. The Hartford Financial Services Group's return on equity of 20.64% beat Loews' return on equity.
93.4% of The Hartford Financial Services Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.3% of Loews shares are held by institutional investors. 1.6% of The Hartford Financial Services Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 18.7% of Loews shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
The Hartford Financial Services Group has higher revenue and earnings than Loews. The Hartford Financial Services Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Loews, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
The Hartford Financial Services Group has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Loews has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.
The Hartford Financial Services Group presently has a consensus target price of $105.44, indicating a potential upside of 8.45%. Loews has a consensus target price of $170.00, indicating a potential upside of 122.86%. Given Loews' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Loews is more favorable than The Hartford Financial Services Group.
In the previous week, The Hartford Financial Services Group had 23 more articles in the media than Loews. MarketBeat recorded 36 mentions for The Hartford Financial Services Group and 13 mentions for Loews. Loews' average media sentiment score of 0.49 beat The Hartford Financial Services Group's score of 0.20 indicating that Loews is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
The Hartford Financial Services Group received 378 more outperform votes than Loews when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.80% of users gave The Hartford Financial Services Group an outperform vote while only 60.67% of users gave Loews an outperform vote.
Summary
The Hartford Financial Services Group beats Loews on 14 of the 20 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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