Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 21,430 Shares of Horace Mann Educators Co. (NYSE:HMN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Horace Mann Educators Co. (NYSE:HMN) by 10.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 223,512 shares of the insurance provider’s stock after buying an additional 21,430 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Horace Mann Educators were worth $7,812,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Horace Mann Educators by 13.9% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,942,494 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $104,194,000 after acquiring an additional 359,083 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Horace Mann Educators by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,533,774 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $82,653,000 after purchasing an additional 43,064 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Horace Mann Educators by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,633,717 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $57,098,000 after buying an additional 20,771 shares during the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Horace Mann Educators by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 1,426,089 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $46,519,000 after buying an additional 26,736 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. lifted its position in shares of Horace Mann Educators by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,083,715 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $35,351,000 after buying an additional 86,766 shares in the last quarter. 99.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods downgraded Horace Mann Educators from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their price target for the company from $39.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Horace Mann Educators from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. 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 currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $42.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Marita Zuraitis sold 4,000 shares of Horace Mann Educators stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Beverley J. Mcclure sold 5,634 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.08, for a total value of $237,078.72. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 19,057 shares in the company, valued at $801,918.56. This trade represents a 22.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,751 shares of company stock valued at $2,114,775 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.80% of the company’s stock.

Horace Mann Educators Price Performance

Horace Mann Educators stock opened at $39.23 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.32. Horace Mann Educators Co. has a 12 month low of $31.81 and a 12 month high of $43.26. The company has a market cap of $1.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.63 and a beta of 0.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 0.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42.

Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The insurance provider reported $0.76 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $412.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $293.87 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Horace Mann Educators Co. will post 2.61 EPS for the current year.

Horace Mann Educators Dividend Announcement

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

Horace Mann Educators Company Profile

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.