Contrasting Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) and Radian Group (NYSE:RDN)

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

Dividends

Horace Mann Educators pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. Radian Group pays an annual dividend of $1.02 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Horace Mann Educators pays out 36.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Radian Group pays out 25.1% 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 and Radian Group has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Horace Mann Educators is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horace Mann Educators	9.63%	14.15%	1.35%
Radian Group	40.50%	13.57%	6.95%

Risk & Volatility

Horace Mann Educators has a beta of 0.11, suggesting that its share price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Radian Group has a beta of 0.76, suggesting that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Horace Mann Educators and Radian Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Horace Mann Educators	0	1	2	1	3.00
Radian Group	0	4	4	0	2.50

Horace Mann Educators currently has a consensus price target of $47.33, indicating a potential upside of 7.54%. Radian Group has a consensus price target of $41.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.77%. Given Radian Group’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Radian Group is more favorable than Horace Mann Educators.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.3% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.3% of Radian Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.6% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Radian Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Horace Mann Educators and Radian Group”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Horace Mann Educators	$1.70 billion	1.04	$162.10 million	$3.98	11.06
Radian Group	$1.20 billion	4.08	$582.64 million	$4.06	9.04

Radian Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Horace Mann Educators. Radian Group 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.

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.

About Radian Group

Radian Group Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mortgage and real estate services business in the United States. It operates through two segments, Mortgage Insurance and Homegenius segments. The Mortgage Insurance segment aggregates, manages, and distributes U.S. mortgage credit risk for mortgage lending institutions and mortgage credit investors, through private mortgage insurance on residential first-lien mortgage loans; and other credit risk management solutions, including contract underwriting. The Homegenius segment offers title services, including a suite of insurance and non-insurance titles; tax and title data, centralized recording, document retrieval, and default curative title services; deed and property reports; closing and settlement services; mortgage underwriting and processing; escrow; appraisal management; and real estate brokerage. This segment also provides real estate valuation products and services; asset management services for managing real estate owned properties, which includes a web-based workflow solution; and a suite of real estate technology products and services to facilitate real estate transactions, such as proprietary platforms as a service solution. It serves mortgage originators, such as mortgage bankers, commercial banks, savings institutions, credit unions, and community banks; and consumers, mortgage lenders, mortgage and real estate investors, government-sponsored enterprises, real estate brokers and agents, and corporations for their employees. The company was formerly known as CMAC Investment Corp. and changed its name to Radian Group Inc. in June 1999. Radian Group Inc. was founded in 1977 and is headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania.