Financial Survey: Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) versus Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV)

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) and Travelers Companies (NYSE:TRV) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Assurant and Travelers Companies”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Assurant	$12.81 billion	1.16	$872.70 million	$19.55	15.33
Travelers Companies	$48.83 billion	1.63	$6.29 billion	$37.34	10.25

Travelers Companies has higher revenue and earnings than Assurant. Travelers Companies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Assurant, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Assurant and Travelers Companies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assurant	7.60%	20.32%	3.26%
Travelers Companies	16.95%	25.41%	5.75%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of Assurant shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.5% of Travelers Companies shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Assurant shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Travelers Companies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Assurant has a beta of 0.55, meaning that its share price is 45% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Travelers Companies has a beta of 0.45, meaning that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Assurant and Travelers Companies, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assurant	0	1	9	0	2.90
Travelers Companies	5	13	4	4	2.27

Assurant currently has a consensus price target of $291.43, suggesting a potential downside of 2.76%. Travelers Companies has a consensus price target of $354.26, suggesting a potential downside of 7.43%. Given Assurant’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Assurant is more favorable than Travelers Companies.

Dividends

Assurant pays an annual dividend of $3.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Travelers Companies pays an annual dividend of $5.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Assurant pays out 18.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Travelers Companies pays out 13.4% 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. Assurant has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years and Travelers Companies has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years. Travelers Companies is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Travelers Companies beats Assurant on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Assurant

Assurant, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides business services that supports, protects, and connects consumer purchases in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through two segments: Global Lifestyle and Global Housing. The Global Lifestyle segment offers mobile device solutions, and extended service contracts and related services for consumer electronics and appliances, and credit and other insurance products; and vehicle protection, commercial equipment, and other related services. The Global Housing segment provides lender-placed homeowners, manufactured housing, and flood insurance; renters insurance and related products; and voluntary manufactured housing, and condominium and homeowners insurance products. The company was formerly known as Fortis, Inc. and changed its name to Assurant, Inc. in February 2004. Assurant, Inc. was founded in 1892 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Travelers Companies

The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers workers’ compensation, commercial automobile and property, general liability, commercial multi-peril, employers’ liability, public and product liability, professional indemnity, marine, aviation, onshore and offshore energy, construction, terrorism, personal accident, and kidnap and ransom insurance products. This segment operates through select accounts, which serve small businesses; commercial accounts that serve mid-sized businesses; national accounts, which serve large companies; and national property and other that serve large and mid-sized customers, commercial trucking industry, and agricultural businesses, as well as markets and distributes its products through brokers, wholesale agents, and program managers. The Bond & Specialty Insurance segment provides surety, fidelity, management and professional liability, and other property and casualty coverages and related risk management services through independent agencies and brokers. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners’ insurance to individuals through independent agencies and brokers. The Travelers Companies, Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York.