Head-To-Head Review: Assurant (AIZ) & Its Competitors

Assurant (NYSE:AIZ) is one of 311 publicly-traded companies in the “Insurance” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its peers? We will compare Assurant to similar businesses based on the strength of its valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Assurant has a beta of 0.52, suggesting that its share price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Assurant’s peers have a beta of -1.62, suggesting that their average share price is 262% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Assurant and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Assurant	0	0	6	2	3.25
Assurant Competitors	3336	15675	16523	741	2.40

Assurant presently has a consensus target price of $327.14, indicating a potential upside of 6.64%. As a group, “Insurance” companies have a potential upside of 5.68%. Given Assurant’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Assurant is more favorable than its peers.

Dividends

Assurant pays an annual dividend of $3.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Assurant pays out 16.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Insurance” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.9% and pay out 31.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Assurant has increased its dividend for 21 consecutive years.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Assurant and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Assurant	$12.81 billion	$872.70 million	14.43
Assurant Competitors	$15.37 billion	$1.70 billion	34.42

Assurant’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Assurant. Assurant is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of Assurant shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.9% of shares of all “Insurance” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Assurant shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.4% of shares of all “Insurance” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Assurant and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Assurant	7.80%	20.44%	3.37%
Assurant Competitors	8.74%	-9.81%	4.11%

Summary

Assurant beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

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.