Horace Mann Educators Co. (NYSE:HMN) Short Interest Up 6.7% in December

Horace Mann Educators Co. (NYSE:HMN) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 721,100 shares, an increase of 6.7% from the November 30th total of 675,900 shares. Approximately 1.8% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 254,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Horace Mann Educators Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:HMN opened at $39.23 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.09, a current ratio of 0.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.39. The company has a market cap of $1.60 billion, a PE ratio of 15.63 and a beta of 0.30. Horace Mann Educators has a fifty-two week low of $31.81 and a fifty-two week high of $43.26.

Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The insurance provider reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.04. Horace Mann Educators had a return on equity of 8.14% and a net margin of 6.55%. The company had revenue of $412.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $293.87 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Horace Mann Educators will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Horace Mann Educators Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 16th were issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.47%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 16th. Horace Mann Educators’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.18%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Marita Zuraitis sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.24, for a total value of $148,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,886,592.64. The trade was a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Beverley J. Mcclure sold 5,634 shares of Horace Mann Educators stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.08, for a total transaction of $237,078.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,057 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $801,918.56. This represents a 22.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 55,751 shares of company stock worth $2,114,775. Insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Horace Mann Educators

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HMN. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Horace Mann Educators during the 2nd quarter worth about $59,000. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Horace Mann Educators by 2.2% during the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 22,333 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $729,000 after purchasing an additional 473 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Horace Mann Educators by 67.5% in the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 25,571 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $834,000 after purchasing an additional 10,302 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC boosted its stake in Horace Mann Educators by 37.4% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 5,919 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $193,000 after purchasing an additional 1,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its position in shares of Horace Mann Educators by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 47,462 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $1,548,000 after purchasing an additional 11,722 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 99.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HMN. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Horace Mann Educators from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered Horace Mann Educators from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $39.00 to $44.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Horace Mann Educators has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.67.

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.