Head-To-Head Analysis: AIFU (NASDAQ:AIFU) & Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN)

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

Risk and Volatility

Horace Mann Educators has a beta of 0.04, suggesting that its share price is 96% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AIFU has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.3% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.7% of AIFU shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 25.6% of AIFU shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horace Mann Educators	9.53%	13.92%	1.31%
AIFU	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Horace Mann Educators and AIFU, 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
AIFU	1	0	0	0	1.00

Horace Mann Educators currently has a consensus price target of $47.33, suggesting a potential upside of 4.85%. Given Horace Mann Educators’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Horace Mann Educators is more favorable than AIFU.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Horace Mann Educators and AIFU”s gross 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	1.07	$162.10 million	$3.90	11.58
AIFU	$247.81 million	0.02	$62.33 million	$14.60	0.10

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

Summary

Horace Mann Educators beats AIFU on 12 of the 15 factors compared between 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 AIFU

AIX, Inc. engages in the provision of agency services and insurance claims adjusting services. It operates through the Insurance Agency and Claims Adjusting segments. The Insurance Agency segment includes providing agency services for insurance products and life insurance products. The Claims Adjusting segment provides pre-underwriting survey services, claims adjusting services, disposal of residual value services, loading and unloading supervision services, and consulting services. The company was founded by Yin An Hu and Qiu Ping Lai in 1998 and is headquartered in Guangzhou, China.