Contrasting Kemper (NYSE:KMPR) & Legal & General Group (OTCMKTS:LGGNY)

Kemper (NYSE:KMPR) and Legal & General Group (OTCMKTS:LGGNY) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Kemper and Legal & General Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kemper	7.18%	14.39%	3.25%
Legal & General Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Kemper pays an annual dividend of $1.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Legal & General Group pays an annual dividend of $0.77 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Kemper pays out 24.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kemper has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

Kemper has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Legal & General Group has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Kemper and Legal & General Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kemper	1	3	3	0	2.29
Legal & General Group	1	3	0	0	1.75

Kemper presently has a consensus target price of $67.25, suggesting a potential upside of 54.28%. Given Kemper’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Kemper is more favorable than Legal & General Group.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Kemper and Legal & General Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kemper	$4.77 billion	0.57	$317.80 million	$5.31	8.21
Legal & General Group	$13.51 billion	1.34	$244.08 million	N/A	N/A

Kemper has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Legal & General Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

86.2% of Kemper shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Legal & General Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.2% of Kemper shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Kemper beats Legal & General Group on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kemper

Kemper Corporation, a diversified insurance holding company, engages in the provision of insurance products to individuals and businesses in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Specialty Property & Casualty Insurance, Preferred Property & Casualty Insurance, and Life & Health Insurance. It provides preferred and specialty automobile, homeowners, renters, fire, umbrella, general liability, and various other property and casualty insurance to individuals, as well as commercial automobile insurance to businesses. The company also offers life insurance, including permanent and term insurance; and supplemental accident and health insurance products, such as Medicare supplement insurance, fixed hospital indemnity, home health care, specified disease, and accident-only plans to individuals in rural, suburban, and urban areas. It distributes its products through independent agents and brokers. The company was formerly known as Unitrin, Inc. and changed its name to Kemper Corporation in August 2011. Kemper Corporation was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About Legal & General Group

Legal & General Group Plc provides various insurance products and services in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates in Legal & General Retirement Institutional (LGRI), Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), Legal & General Capital (LGC), and Retail segments. The LGRI segment offers annuity contracts with guaranteed income for a specified time; and longevity insurance products. The LGIM segment offers index fund management; active fixed income funds and liquidity funds; active equity management; solution and liability driven investment; multi-asset funds; corporate pension scheme solutions; and real assets. The LGC segment provides investment strategy and implementation, and direct investment and structuring services. The Retail segment offers protection products, such as health, disability, critical illness, and accident; individual term assurance; reinsurance; savings and death benefits; annuities; lifetime mortgages; lifetime care plans; retirement interest only mortgages; and workplace savings scheme that provides corporate pension scheme solutions. It is also involved in the unit trust and institutional fund management, mortgage finance, treasury, building project and modular housing development, general insurance, and open-ended investment businesses. In addition, the company engages in the investment, operation, management, trading, and letting and operation of leased real estate; and construction of commercial buildings, financial intermediation, pension tracing and transfer, insurance agents and brokers, fund general partner, commercial lending, venture capital investing, contractual scheme, investor alternative investment fund, collective asset-management, and investment management activities; and provision of investment advisory, business information consultancy, and technology services. Legal & General Group Plc was founded in 1836 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.