Bowhead Specialty (NYSE:BOW) versus Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) Critical Survey

Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) and Bowhead Specialty (NYSE:BOW) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Horace Mann Educators and Bowhead Specialty, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Horace Mann Educators	0	2	1	1	2.75
Bowhead Specialty	0	3	2	0	2.40

Horace Mann Educators presently has a consensus target price of $39.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.42%. Bowhead Specialty has a consensus target price of $30.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.11%. Given Horace Mann Educators’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Horace Mann Educators is more favorable than Bowhead Specialty.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Horace Mann Educators and Bowhead Specialty”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Horace Mann Educators	$1.49 billion	1.02	$45.00 million	$1.96	19.06
Bowhead Specialty	$348.44 million	2.75	N/A	N/A	N/A

Horace Mann Educators has higher revenue and earnings than Bowhead Specialty.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

99.3% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.8% of Horace Mann Educators shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Horace Mann Educators	5.24%	7.44%	0.62%
Bowhead Specialty	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Horace Mann Educators beats Bowhead Specialty on 9 of the 11 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 Bowhead Specialty

Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. provides specialty property and casualty insurance products in the United States. It underwrites casualty insurance solutions for risks in the construction, distribution, heavy manufacturing, real estate, and hospitality segments; professional liability insurance solutions for financial institutions, private and public directors and officers liability insurance, errors and omissions liability insurance, and cyber segments; and healthcare solutions for hospitals, senior care providers, managed care organizations, miscellaneous medical facilities, and healthcare management liability segments. The company distributes its products through distribution partners in wholesale and retail markets. Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. was formerly known as Bowhead Holdings Inc. and changed its name to Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. in March 2024. The company was founded in 2020 and is based in New York, New York. Bowhead Specialty Holdings Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Bowhead Insurance Holdings LP.