Lincoln National (LNC) Competitors

Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) and Lincoln National (NYSE:LNC) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, community ranking, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Is UNM or LNC more profitable?

Lincoln National has a net margin of 17.76% compared to Unum Group's net margin of 13.81%. Lincoln National's return on equity of 18.47% beat Unum Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Unum Group	13.81%	14.91%	2.53%
Lincoln National	17.76%	18.47%	0.34%

Do analysts rate UNM or LNC?

Unum Group currently has a consensus price target of $88.36, indicating a potential upside of 16.94%. Lincoln National has a consensus price target of $35.91, indicating a potential upside of 19.34%. Given Lincoln National's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Lincoln National is more favorable than Unum Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Unum Group	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.79
Lincoln National	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, UNM or LNC?

Lincoln National has higher revenue and earnings than Unum Group. Lincoln National is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Unum Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Unum Group	$12.79B	1.04	$1.78B	$9.47	7.98
Lincoln National	$17.99B	0.29	$3.28B	$18.38	1.64

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of UNM or LNC?

86.6% of Unum Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.8% of Lincoln National shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Unum Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Lincoln National 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor UNM or LNC?

Lincoln National received 76 more outperform votes than Unum Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 50.21% of users gave Lincoln National an outperform vote while only 47.79% of users gave Unum Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Unum Group	Outperform Votes 410 47.79%	Underperform Votes 448 52.21%
Lincoln National	Outperform Votes 486 50.21%	Underperform Votes 482 49.79%

Is UNM or LNC a better dividend stock?

Unum Group pays an annual dividend of $1.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Lincoln National pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.0%. Unum Group pays out 17.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Lincoln National pays out 9.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Unum Group has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Lincoln National is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has more volatility and risk, UNM or LNC?

Unum Group has a beta of 0.46, suggesting that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lincoln National has a beta of 1.56, suggesting that its share price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor UNM or LNC?

In the previous week, Unum Group had 1 more articles in the media than Lincoln National. MarketBeat recorded 28 mentions for Unum Group and 27 mentions for Lincoln National. Unum Group's average media sentiment score of 0.91 beat Lincoln National's score of 0.85 indicating that Unum Group is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Unum Group	15 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Lincoln National	15 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Unum Group and Lincoln National tied by winning 11 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.