Short Interest in Horace Mann Educators Co. (NYSE:HMN) Increases By 92.8%

Horace Mann Educators Co. (NYSE:HMN) saw a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 712,500 shares, an increase of 92.8% from the September 15th total of 369,500 shares. Currently, 1.8% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 260,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Horace Mann Educators

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Horace Mann Educators by 1.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,533,774 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $82,653,000 after purchasing an additional 43,064 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC grew its holdings in 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 valued at $46,519,000 after buying an additional 26,736 shares in the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. increased its position in shares of Horace Mann Educators by 8.7% during the second quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 1,083,715 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $35,351,000 after buying an additional 86,766 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Horace Mann Educators by 14.2% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 339,225 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $12,548,000 after buying an additional 42,308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Horace Mann Educators by 8.2% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 115,672 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $4,279,000 after acquiring an additional 8,740 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 99.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on HMN shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on Horace Mann Educators from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Horace Mann Educators from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Horace Mann Educators in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Raymond James initiated coverage on shares of Horace Mann Educators in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating and a $42.00 target price on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.00.

Horace Mann Educators Stock Up 0.5 %

HMN stock opened at $34.89 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $34.54 and a 200-day moving average of $34.60. Horace Mann Educators has a fifty-two week low of $29.88 and a fifty-two week high of $39.25. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.37 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.08 and a current ratio of 0.08.

Horace Mann Educators (NYSE:HMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The insurance provider reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.01. Horace Mann Educators had a net margin of 5.24% and a return on equity of 7.44%. The firm had revenue of $388.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $288.67 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.03 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Horace Mann Educators will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Horace Mann Educators Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 16th were issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 16th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.90%. Horace Mann Educators’s payout ratio is 87.18%.

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.