W.R. Berkley (NYSE:WRB) and Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) Head to Head Analysis

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

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares W.R. Berkley and Horace Mann Educators”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
W.R. Berkley	$14.71 billion	1.92	$1.78 billion	$4.73	16.09
Horace Mann Educators	$1.68 billion	1.29	$162.10 million	$4.29	12.42

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

68.8% of W.R. Berkley shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.3% of Horace Mann Educators shares are held by institutional investors. 25.1% of W.R. Berkley shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Horace Mann Educators shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

W.R. Berkley pays an annual dividend of $0.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Horace Mann Educators pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. W.R. Berkley pays out 8.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Horace Mann Educators pays out 33.6% 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. W.R. Berkley has increased its dividend for 23 consecutive years and Horace Mann Educators has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for W.R. Berkley and Horace Mann Educators, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W.R. Berkley	6	9	3	0	1.83
Horace Mann Educators	0	1	1	1	3.00

W.R. Berkley presently has a consensus target price of $70.56, suggesting a potential downside of 7.27%. Horace Mann Educators has a consensus target price of $59.00, suggesting a potential upside of 10.70%. Given Horace Mann Educators’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Horace Mann Educators is more favorable than W.R. Berkley.

Volatility and Risk

W.R. Berkley has a beta of 0.23, indicating that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Horace Mann Educators has a beta of 0.09, indicating that its share price is 91% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.R. Berkley	12.53%	19.70%	4.27%
Horace Mann Educators	10.16%	16.07%	1.54%

Summary

W.R. Berkley beats Horace Mann Educators on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About W.R. Berkley

W. R. Berkley Corporation, an insurance holding company, operates as a commercial lines writers worldwide. It operates in two segments, Insurance and Reinsurance & Monoline Excess. The Insurance segment underwrites commercial insurance business, including excess and surplus lines, admitted lines, and specialty personal lines. This segment also provides accident and health insurance and reinsurance products; insurance for commercial risks; casualty and specialty environmental products; specialized insurance coverages for fine arts and jewelry exposures; excess liability and inland marine coverage for small to medium-sized insureds; and commercial general liability, umbrella, professional liability, directors and officers, commercial property, and surety products, as well as products for technology, and life sciences and travel industries. In addition, this segment offers cyber risk solutions; crime and fidelity insurance products; medical professional coverages; workers' compensation insurance products; general insurance; personal lines insurance solutions, including home, condo/co-op, auto, and collectibles; automobile, law enforcement, public officials and educator's legal, and employment practices liability, as well as incidental medical and property and crime insurance products; at-risk and alternative risk insurance program management services; professional liability; energy and marine risks; and provides insurance products to the Lloyd's marketplace. The Reinsurance & Monoline Excess segment provides treaty and facultative reinsurance solutions; property and casualty reinsurance; facultative reinsurance products include automatic, semi-automatic and individual risk assumed reinsurance; and turnkey products such as cyber, employment practices liability insurance, liquor liability insurance and violent events. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

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.