HIG vs. L, AFG, AIG, ACGL, WRB, CINF, EG, 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), Cincinnati Financial (CINF), Everest Group (EG), 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 better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and community ranking.
In the previous week, The Hartford Financial Services Group had 1 more articles in the media than Loews. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for The Hartford Financial Services Group and 14 mentions for Loews. The Hartford Financial Services Group's average media sentiment score of 0.87 beat Loews' score of 0.84 indicating that The Hartford Financial Services Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.
93.4% of The Hartford Financial Services Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 58.3% of Loews shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of The Hartford Financial Services Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.7% of Loews shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
The Hartford Financial Services Group pays an annual dividend of $1.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. 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 3.7% 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.
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.
The Hartford Financial Services Group has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Loews has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.
The Hartford Financial Services Group received 379 more outperform votes than Loews when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 66.77% of users gave The Hartford Financial Services Group an outperform vote while only 60.67% of users gave Loews an outperform vote.
The Hartford Financial Services Group currently has a consensus target price of $105.88, suggesting a potential upside of 2.63%. Loews has a consensus target price of $170.00, suggesting a potential upside of 118.68%. Given Loews' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Loews is more favorable than The Hartford Financial Services Group.
The Hartford Financial Services Group has a net margin of 10.87% compared to Loews' net margin of 9.27%. The Hartford Financial Services Group's return on equity of 20.64% beat Loews' return on equity.
Summary
The Hartford Financial Services Group beats Loews on 16 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.
Skip ChartThis 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.
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