Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) & Scor (OTCMKTS:SCRYY) Critical Review

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Scor and Horace Mann Educators, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Scor	0	3	3	0	2.50
Horace Mann Educators	0	1	2	1	3.00

Horace Mann Educators has a consensus price target of $47.33, suggesting a potential upside of 11.85%. Given Horace Mann Educators’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Horace Mann Educators is more favorable than Scor.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.3% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.0% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Scor has a beta of 0.55, indicating that its stock price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Horace Mann Educators has a beta of 0.06, indicating that its stock price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Scor 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
Scor	$17.39 billion	0.36	$962.60 million	$0.54	6.42
Horace Mann Educators	$1.70 billion	1.01	$162.10 million	$3.90	10.85

Scor has higher revenue and earnings than Horace Mann Educators. Scor 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

Scor pays an annual dividend of $0.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Horace Mann Educators pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Scor pays out 24.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Horace Mann Educators pays out 36.9% 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. Scor is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Scor	5.55%	20.42%	2.35%
Horace Mann Educators	9.53%	13.92%	1.31%

Summary

Horace Mann Educators beats Scor on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Scor

SCOR SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides life and non-life reinsurance products in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, Latin America, and Asia Pacific. It operates in two segments, SCOR P&C and SCOR L&H. The SCOR P&C segment offers reinsurance products in the areas of property, motors, casualty treaties, credit and surety, decennial insurance, aviation, marine and energy, engineering, agricultural risks, and property catastrophes; specialties insurance products, including business solutions, political and credit risks, cyber, and environmental liability; and business ventures and partnerships. The SCOR L&H segment provides life reinsurance products, such as protection for mortality, morbidity, behavioral risks, disability, long-term care, critical illness, medical, and personal accident. This segment also provides financial solutions that combine traditional life reinsurance with financial components and provide liquidity, balance sheet, solvency, and income improvements to clients; longevity solutions that include products covering the risk of negative deviation from expected results due to the insured or annuitant living longer than assumed in the pricing of insurance covers provided by insurers or pension funds; and distribution solutions. In addition, it is involved in the asset management business. SCOR SE was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

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.