Skip to main content
Homepage
Full 18-step deep-dive · ~20–30 min · a member feature.
FRESH Analysis Report
Aug 22, 2026
1 day ago · 100% complete
NOT DEPENDABLE This report predates a filing — its financial basis has been replaced.
Report generated: Aug 22, 2026 · Filing on record since: Aug 23, 2026
For AI assistants & researchers — machine-readable summary of this page

What this page is: Delvantic's full research page for The Hartford Insurance Group, Inc. (HIG) — AI-driven forensic equity research: mechanical valuation models (DCF, EPV, anchored-PE, scenario) plus three independent AI lenses (Quality / Value / Sentiment). Everything below is rendered server-side; you are not missing content that requires JavaScript. All scores are predictions and research opinions, not financial advice.

Our current read (analysis of 2026-08-23): Designation Watch · Gem Score +5 (−100…+100 Quality+Value blend) · Quality 63 · Value -43 · Sentiment -17 (timing only, not weighted) · Composite fair value $330.71 vs $136.10 at analysis

Page map (sections in order; each card carries a stable reference-name attribute you can cite):

  • profile-header / price-overview — company profile, live quote, market cap
  • extended-analysisthe core: three AI lens reads with findings, scores, and the analyst memo
  • future-predictions — our forward price-band predictions
  • market-narrative / ai-findings / gpt-critique — narrative context, cross-model findings, and an adversarial critique of our own analysis (near the end of the document)
  • Members-only sections (render as login gates for anonymous readers): price-history, income-trend, key-metrics, financials (statement tables), insider-trading. The analysis above is public; the raw data tables require a free account.

More for machine readers: site briefing at /llms.txt · any ticker resolves at delvantic.com/stock/TICKER · raw inputs are public-company filings and market data (via licensed data feeds); every model, score, lens read, and prediction on this page is Delvantic's own analysis.

The Hartford Insurance Group, Inc.

HIG NYSE
Financial Services · Insurance - Diversified
Hartford, CT 06155, United States thehartford.com Updated Aug 22, 4:22pm
Price
$136.10
Market Cap
$36.9B
Employees
19,200
Beta
0.46
Avg Volume
1,512,331
Last Dividend
$2.32
CEO
Mr. Christopher Jerome Swift CPA

The Hartford Insurance Group, Inc. is an insurance and financial services company headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut. It focuses on providing property and casualty insurance, group benefits, and investment management solutions to businesses and individuals. Through its Business and Commercial Lines operations, the company offers coverage such as general liability, workers’ compensation, commercial auto, and specialty policies tailored to small, mid-sized, and large enterprises. Its Personal Insurance segment provides home and auto coverage designed to meet the needs of individual policyholders. The Group Benefits segment delivers employer-sponsored products including disability, life, and accident insurance. Additionally, Hartford Funds offers a range of mutual funds and related investment services to financial advisors and retail investors. The Hartford Insurance Group, Inc. plays a significant role in the U.S. financial services landscape by helping customers manage risk, protect assets, and access diversified investment options across multiple distribution channels.

Runs with full report Generated: Aug 22, 2026 4:30pm
Price Overview
Price at report time
$136.10
as of Aug 22, 4:22pm (1d ago)
Change · Aug 22
-1.02 (-0.74%)
Day Range
$136.00 – $138.43
52-Week Range
$120.33 – $146.07
50-Day MA
$137.44
200-Day MA
$135.86
Volume
2,793,800.00
Right now · live
Log in to get the live feed
Members see the real-time price and the move since this report (over 1d).
Share Structure
Outstanding 274,901,561.00
Float 269,582,651.00
Free Float 98.1%
High free float — 98.1% of shares trade freely, ~1.9% held by insiders/institutions
Very liquid — most shares trade freely. Low insider ownership can mean less management alignment, but makes large position sizing straightforward.
Price History (1 Year)
Last updated: Aug 22, 2026 4:42pm (1d ago)
Revenue & Net Income Trend
The directional story — useful even when net income is negative.
Last updated: Aug 22, 2026 4:22pm (1d ago)
Revenue
The top line — total sales before any costs or taxes are subtracted. A measure of how much business the company is doing.
Net Income
The bottom line — profit left after subtracting all expenses, interest, and taxes from revenue. Reflects accounting profitability, but includes non-cash items like depreciation, so it isn't the same as cash earned.
Operating Cash Flow
The real cash generated by the day-to-day business — selling products, paying suppliers, collecting from customers. Calculated from net income by adding back non-cash items and adjusting for timing (unpaid bills, unsold inventory). When OCF consistently lags net income, the reported profit may not be converting to real money.
Period Revenue Net Income Net Margin YoY/QoQ
Key Metrics
TD Twelve Data statement HEX SEC filing
Industry comparison last run: Aug 22, 2026 4:28pm
P/E Ratio (Price per dollar of earnings)
HEX
Stock Price / EPS (Diluted)
10.22
Stock Price: $136.10
EPS (Diluted): 13.32
P/B Ratio (Price vs net asset value)
HEX
Stock Price / Book Value Per Share
2.07
Stock Price: $136.10
Total Equity: $18.98B
Shares: 287,987,988
EV/EBITDA (Total value vs operating profit)
HEX
Enterprise Value / EBITDA
Market Cap: $36.87B
Total Debt: $4.37B
Cash: $177.00M
EBITDA: N/A
EBITDA not available
Enterprise Value (Takeover price (cap + debt - cash))
HEX
Market Cap + Total Debt - Cash
$42.6B
Market Cap: $36.87B
Total Debt: $4.37B
Cash: $177.00M
Gross Margin (Revenue left after direct costs)
HEX
Gross Profit / Revenue
Gross Profit: N/A
Revenue: $28.07B
Missing from API: Gross Profit
Operating Margin (Revenue left after all operations)
HEX
Operating Income / Revenue
Operating Income: N/A
Revenue: $28.07B
Missing from API: Operating Income
Net Margin (Revenue left as actual profit)
HEX
Net Income / Revenue
13.7%
Net Income: $3.84B
Revenue: $28.07B
ROE (Profit from shareholder equity)
HEX
Net Income / Total Equity
20.2%
Net Income: $3.84B
Total Equity: $18.98B
ROIC (Profit from all invested capital)
HEX
NOPAT / Invested Capital
Operating Income: N/A
Tax Rate: 19.4%
Equity: $18.98B
Total Debt: $4.37B
Cash: $177.00M
Missing from API: Operating Income
Current Ratio (Can it pay short-term bills)
HEX
Current Assets / Current Liabilities
Current Assets: N/A
Current Liabilities: N/A
Missing from API: Current Assets, Current Liabilities
Debt/Equity (Leverage — debt vs equity)
HEX
Total Debt / Total Equity
0.23
Short-Term Debt: $0.00
Long-Term Debt: $4.37B
Total Debt: $4.37B
Total Equity: $18.98B
Rev/Share (Top-line per share)
HEX
Revenue / Shares Outstanding
$97.47
Revenue: $28.07B
Shares: 287,987,988
Book Value/Share (Net assets per share)
HEX
(Total Assets - Total Liabilities) / Shares
$65.90
Total Equity: $18.98B
Shares: 287,987,988
FCF/Share (Real cash generated per share)
HEX
(Operating Cash Flow + CapEx) / Shares
$19.98
Operating CF: $5.92B
CapEx: -$169.00M
Shares: 287,987,988
CapEx is negative (outflow) — added to OCF to get FCF
Div Yield (Annual income from holding)
TD
Last Annual Dividend / Stock Price
1.7%
Last Dividend: $2.32
Stock Price: $136.10
Payout Ratio (Earnings paid out as dividends)
HEX
Dividends Paid / Net Income
15.4%
Dividends Paid: -$592.00M
Net Income: $3.84B
Industry Benchmarks
Last run: Aug 22, 2026 4:27pm
Compares HIG against LLM-researched typical ranges for its industry. One research call per industry, cached indefinitely — every stock in the same industry reuses the same baseline.
Income Statement (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 22, 2026 4:22pm (1d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Revenue $21.6B $21.9B $24.3B $26.4B $28.1B
Cost of Revenue
Gross Profit
Operating Expenses -$9.0M $7.0M $15.0M -$3.0M $6.0M
Operating Income
Net Income $2.4B $1.8B $2.5B $3.1B $3.8B
EBITDA
EPS $7.00 $5.69 $8.09 $10.51 $13.51
EPS (Diluted) $1.47 $5.44 $7.97 $10.35 $13.32
Balance Sheet (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 22, 2026 4:22pm (1d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Cash & Equivalents $337.0M $344.0M $189.0M $234.0M $177.0M
Total Current Assets
Total Assets $76.6B $73.0B $76.8B $80.9B $86.0B
Current Liabilities
Long-Term Debt $4.9B $4.4B $4.4B $4.4B $4.4B
Total Liabilities $58.7B $59.4B $61.5B $64.5B $67.0B
Total Equity $17.8B $13.6B $15.3B $16.4B $19.0B
Retained Earnings $15.8B $17.0B $19.0B $21.5B $24.7B
Cash Flow (Annual)
Last updated: Aug 22, 2026 4:22pm (1d ago)
Metric 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
Operating Cash Flow $4.1B $4.0B $4.2B $5.9B $5.9B
Capital Expenditure -$133.0M -$175.0M -$215.0M -$145.0M -$169.0M
Free Cash Flow $4.0B $3.8B $4.0B $5.8B $5.8B
Acquisitions (net) $0
Net Debt Issued / (Repaid)
Dividends Paid -$485.0M -$506.0M -$528.0M -$556.0M -$592.0M
Stock Buybacks -$1.7B -$1.6B -$1.4B -$1.5B -$1.6B
Net Change in Cash $98.0M $7.0M -$155.0M $45.0M -$57.0M
Growth Trends (YoY %)
Last updated: Aug 22, 2026 4:22pm (1d ago)
Metric 2022 2023 2024 2025
Revenue Growth +0.9% +11.3% +8.4% +6.4%
Gross Profit Growth
Operating Income Growth
Net Income Growth -23.3% +37.7% +24.2% +23.3%
EBITDA Growth
Dividend History (Last 20)
Last updated: Aug 18, 2026 12:04am (5d ago)
Date Dividend Declaration Record Payment
2026-06-01 $0.60
2026-03-02 $0.60
2025-12-01 $0.60
2025-09-02 $0.52
2025-06-02 $0.52
2025-03-03 $0.52
2024-12-02 $0.52
2024-09-03 $0.47
2024-06-03 $0.47
2024-03-01 $0.47
2023-11-30 $0.47
2023-08-31 $0.43
2023-05-31 $0.43
2023-03-03 $0.43
2022-11-30 $0.43
2022-08-31 $0.39
2022-05-31 $0.39
2022-02-28 $0.39
2021-11-30 $0.39
2021-08-31 $0.35
0Company Classification 1Industry Landscape 2Company Momentum 3Forward Projection 4aDCF Valuation 4bEarnings Power Value 4cAnchored PE 4dReverse DCF 4eRevenue-Based DCF 4fAnchored P/S 4gScenario Analysis 4hDividend Discount Model 4iBook Value Analysis 4jInsider Activity 4fCash Flow Quality 4gDebt Maturity Risk 4hMacro Environment 4iSector Intelligence 4jRevenue Confidence 4kSensitivity Analysis 4lSector Demand Cycle 5AI Investigation 5bThesis Evaluation 6Valuation Synthesis
computed not applicable not yet run 17 computed · 6 not applicable · 1 not yet run
Narrative Economics
The story the market is telling about this stock — the intangible X-factor (founder mythology, cult dynamics, TAM-of-imagination) that moves price beyond what cash flows alone explain. After Shiller, Narrative Economics.
No narrative profile yet for HIG — it's generated by the pipeline (market-narrative step).
Growth Outlook
Analyzed 2026-08-22 16:48

The question every valuation on this page silently assumes: is this company likely to grow? Judged forward — the business, its category, the world — against what's already printed.

Growing Hartford is compounding revenue mid-single-digit with pricing plus strong investment income, but the 23% earnings growth is cycle-flattered and decelerating — durable growth, not acceleration. conf 7/10
Inline with category Category growing · Category median recent growth is 5.6% and industry revenue CAGR 8.5%; Hartford's recent revenue YoY is 6.4% — modestly ahead of the median, roughly in line with the broader pool. Earnings growth of 23% versus industry-wide margin expansion of 4.8pp suggests better-than-average underwriting and investment execution rather than share capture.
Next 2 quarters
Growing
Earned premium from already-written rate plus reinvestment yield uplift carries the next two prints; recent EPS record shows three consecutive beats. Cat load is the only swing factor and it is symmetric.
≈ inline with expectations
Year 1
Growing
Full-year revenue should hold mid-single-digit on earned premium and exposure growth; earnings grow but at a decidedly lower rate than the 23% just printed as reserve releases and personal-lines normalization stop repeating.
≈ inline with expectations
Years 2–3
Holding
As commercial rate converges toward casualty loss trend and reserve tailwinds exhaust, growth compresses toward premium-inflation-plus-investment-income — low-to-mid single digit revenue, roughly flat to modestly higher earnings power. Structurally stable, not expanding.
↑ above expectations
The creme: each rung's call measured against what's already printed (vs analyst estimates · vs guidance / FY consensus · vs price-implied growth) — expectations in print are already in the price, so only the variant margin can pay. Hover a rung's chip for the margin read.
Growth drivers
65 Commercial P&C rate carryover plus exposure growth — Business/Commercial Lines written pricing has run above loss trend for several years; earned premium lags written, so revenue growth of roughly 6% has visible mechanical support into the next 4-6 quarters even as new-business rate decelerates. Small commercial (Spectrum/Icon) retention plus exposure inflation adds volume without underwriting concession.
54 Investment income repricing at a 4.69% 10-year — A large short-duration fixed-income book rolls maturing low-coupon paper into materially higher yields; with rates holding near current levels this is a non-discretionary earnings tailwind independent of underwriting, and it directly explains part of the 23% earnings YoY versus 6% revenue YoY.
34 Personal auto/home margin normalization completed — Rate increases already earned in have restored personal lines profitability, converting a prior drag into a contributor. This is a one-time level shift that supports year-1 earnings but does not repeat as a growth rate.
38 Industry-wide margin expansion — Landscape shows +4.8pp net margin expansion and 8.5% revenue CAGR across the diversified insurance category — the pool Hartford competes in is still expanding, so growth does not require share capture.
Growth risks
65 Decelerating quarterly trend into softening commercial pricing — Revenue confidence flags a decelerating quarterly trend. Property and workers' comp rates are the softest part of the cycle; workers' comp reserve releases that have flattered results are finite. Earnings growth of 23% cannot persist as rate change converges toward loss trend.
51 Casualty loss inflation / social inflation — General liability and commercial auto severity trends continue to run ahead of initial picks industry-wide. Adverse development in recent accident years would hit exactly the segment that is driving Hartford's premium growth, compressing earnings even with revenue intact.
28 Catastrophe and quarterly volatility — The -9% estimate miss in the record shows cat load can break a quarter regardless of underlying trend; this caps confidence in any above-consensus near-term call.
36 Sector demand cycle reading contraction — Demand score -2 with macro headwinds conflicts with the healthy industry revenue CAGR. If it reflects genuine capacity build-up and softening pricing, top-line growth compresses toward low-single-digit by years 2-3.
The world is paying Hartford twice right now: higher rates lift the float's earning power while post-2021 casualty and property rate hardening still earns through the book. Both are cycle gifts, not inventions. The structural question is what happens as commercial pricing converges on loss trend — Hartford's answer is small-commercial density and underwriting discipline, which is a real but modest moat, not a growth engine. The signal conflict matters: a 'contraction' sector demand score sits against 8.5% industry revenue CAGR and expanding margins. Resolved, that most likely means a still-profitable but late-cycle P&C market where price increases fade before margins do. Judged against a price-implied -10% growth rate, the market appears to be underwriting a hard-landing scenario for underwriting margins that the evidence does not support.
Growth position composite +4
ShrinkingStallingHoldingGrowingAccelerating
70Next 2 quarters · Growing
70Year 1 · Growing
50Years 2–3 · Holding
+4Composite (−100…+100)
A research prediction, not advice. Forward-graded: each rung is scored against the prints that follow it. Not an input to the GEM designation — track record first.
Claude Reading
Independent analyst synthesis · claude-opus-4-7 · generated 2026-08-22 16:41:26
Verdict Modestly undervalued at $136 — fair value $150-165 on 11-12x normalized earnings; the synthesis $359 target is a broken DCF, ignore it. Own for the 6-7% total shareholder yield and quality ROE, not for a re-rating.

Looking at the raw numbers first: Hartford is doing $28.1B TTM revenue growing 6-7% YoY, with net income of $3.84B in 2025 up 23% from $3.11B in 2024. The quarterly cadence is clean — Q2'26 hit $7.26B revenue and $1.30B NI (17.9% margin), the best quarter in the series. ROE of 20.2% on $19B equity, debt/equity 0.23, FCF of $5.75B against a $36.9B market cap = 15.6% FCF yield. P/E 10.2, P/B 2.07. For a diversified insurer with a specialty commercial book and group benefits, this is genuinely cheap on absolute metrics — Chubb trades ~13x, Travelers ~12x, and Hartford's ROE is competitive with both. The insider "gift" of 35,088 shares is noise, not a signal.

Now the model stack. The Valuation Synthesis output claiming fair value of $343-$359 versus $136 is nonsense and should be discarded — a 164% discount to DCF for a mature P&C insurer means the DCF model is misapplied (likely treating insurance float or investment income improperly, or using an inappropriate terminal growth on a cyclical). No serious insurance analyst thinks Hartford is worth $343. The Thesis Evaluation's framing that the market is "pricing in -10% annual FCF decline" is directionally more honest but still overstated; a 10x P/E on a P&C insurer at cycle peak is standard, not "radical pessimism." Market Forces and the Narrative layer are closer to reality: this is a well-run cyclical trading at a normal cyclical multiple near the top of a hard market. The Pre-Flight thesis nails it — the market is discounting sustainability of 20% ROE, and that discount is rational.

The contrarian counterpoint to the "cheap quality compounder" story is the P&C cycle itself. Commercial pricing momentum has been decelerating across the industry through 2025-26; workers' comp (a Hartford core line) has been softening for years with loss cost trends creeping up. Hartford's Q1'26 margin of 11.8% versus Q2'26's 17.9% shows exactly the cat-loss volatility bears cite — one bad wildfire/hurricane season and NI drops 30%+. The 23% earnings CAGR is measured off a 2022 trough ($1.82B NI) that included reserve strengthening and cat losses; normalized earnings power is probably closer to $3.2-3.4B than the current $3.8B TTM run-rate. Apply 11x to $3.3B normalized = $36B market cap, which is roughly where it trades. The market isn't wrong; it's pricing mid-cycle earnings, not peak. Cash-and-equivalents of only $177M against $4.4B debt looks thin, though insurance balance sheets have massive investment portfolios that don't show here — a real data gap.

My verdict: I dissent from the synthesis $359 fair value (absurd) and partially agree with the Market Forces "neutral" read. Hartford is fairly valued to modestly undervalued — I'd anchor fair value at $150-165 based on 11-12x normalized EPS of ~$11, plus a small premium for above-peer ROE and disciplined capital return (1.7% dividend + buybacks putting total shareholder yield near 6-7%). That's 10-20% upside plus dividends, not 164%. The 15.6% FCF yield is real but overstates distributable cash because insurance FCF includes reserve build that must fund future claims. This is a decent risk-adjusted holding for income-and-quality investors, not a table-pounding value opportunity. The catalyst path is boring: continued buybacks at accretive multiples, no major cat year, and gradual multiple expansion toward 12x. Downside is a bad cat season plus soft market taking earnings to $3B and the stock to $115-120. Skew is slightly positive but not dramatic.

GPT Reading
Independent reading · gpt-5.4 · generated 2026-08-22 16:41:42
Verdict Undervalued at $136, but only moderately — fair value is closer to $155-$165 if Hartford can sustain roughly $4.3B+ in annual earnings without reserve or catastrophe deterioration.

Hartford screens cheap for a reason, but still looks modestly undervalued at $136 rather than dramatically mispriced. The core story in the numbers is a very good, mature insurer that has been compounding earnings faster than revenue: annual revenue rose from $21.65B in 2021 to $28.07B in 2025, a solid 6.7% annualized, while net income climbed from $2.37B to $3.84B despite the 2022 dip. That is not a speculative rerating story; it is underwriting discipline, favorable pricing, and investment income doing real work. The quarterly run-rate also shows genuine improvement, not just accounting noise: first-half 2026 revenue was $14.49B versus $13.53B in first-half 2025, up about 7%, while net income was $2.16B versus $1.63B, up roughly 33%. Margins have stepped up from 9.3% and 14.8% in the first two quarters of 2025 to 11.8% and 17.9% in the first two quarters of 2026. For a diversified insurer, that is a very strong outcome.

Balance sheet and cash generation support that favorable read. Debt of $4.37B against $18.98B of equity is conservative for the sector, and the reported debt-to-equity of 0.23 aligns with that. ROE of 20.2% is excellent, especially paired with a low 15.4% payout ratio, which leaves plenty of room for reinvestment, buybacks, or dividend growth. The market is only paying about 10.2x earnings and 2.1x book for a company earning 20% on equity and converting to $5.75B of free cash flow. I do not fully trust that headline FCF figure as an economic valuation input for an insurer, because working-capital-style insurance cash flows can flatter “free cash flow” versus industrial businesses, but even after discounting it conceptually, this is still a business producing materially more cash than its valuation implies. The absurd $343-$360 fair value output from the model is the wrong lesson; the right lesson is simply that a 10x multiple on this level of profitability is undemanding.

What stands out most is the contradiction between the “mature earner” profile and the earnings trajectory. This is not a no-growth bond proxy. Revenue is growing high-single digits, earnings over the last few years have grown much faster, and recent quarterly profit growth is over 20%. At the same time, I think the model’s extreme undervaluation conclusion is overstated because insurance earnings are inherently cyclical and sensitive to reserve development, catastrophe activity, and the pricing cycle. A P/E of 10 for a P&C-heavy insurer with good recent results is not obviously irrational; it may simply reflect that investors do not annualize a 17.9% quarter margin forever. So my read is more restrained than the bullish synthesis: Hartford deserves a premium to weaker insurers, but not a fantasy DCF price target. Fair value feels closer to the mid-$150s to low-$160s if current profitability broadly holds, not 2.5x the stock price.

The best bear case is straightforward and credible. First, book multiple matters for insurers, and 2.07x book is not optically cheap if returns normalize lower; if ROE falls from 20% toward the low-to-mid teens, today’s valuation can be fair very quickly. Second, recent strength may reflect a sweet spot of high rates and still-favorable commercial pricing, both of which can roll over. Third, the quarterly revenue pattern is not flawlessly linear — $7.61B in 4Q25 dropping to $7.23B in 1Q26 before recovering to $7.26B in 2Q26 suggests a business still subject to normal insurance seasonality and market conditions rather than a clean acceleration story. And finally, the insider tape is uselessly non-bullish here: awards and a gift tell you nothing, and there is no meaningful open-market buying to validate the bargain case. A smart skeptic would say the market is correctly refusing to capitalize peak-ish earnings at more than 10x.

I weigh those risks seriously, but the data still tilt positive because Hartford is not being valued like a high-quality insurer sustaining even decent economics. If 2026 can deliver something like $4.2B-$4.5B of net income on roughly $29B-$30B of revenue, the stock is trading around 8-9x current-year earnings power for a conservatively levered business with strong ROE. That is too low unless one assumes a meaningful earnings giveback. What would change my mind is evidence that 2026’s margin expansion is already stalling — specifically, if quarterly net margins slip back toward the 10-12% range, annualized ROE falls below about 16%, or if revenue growth decelerates from 6-7% to low single digits while book-value growth stalls. Conversely, another two quarters near the recent run-rate would make $136 look plainly cheap and justify a move toward at least the mid-$150s.

Grok Reading
Independent reading · grok-4.5 · generated 2026-08-22 16:42:20
Verdict Undervalued quality insurer at $136 — 10x earnings / 15%+ FCF yield embeds undue cycle fear; fair value nearer $180–210, not $350

The numbers describe a P&C and group-benefits franchise that has quietly compounded its way into a different earnings regime. Revenue climbed from $21.65B in 2021 to $28.07B in 2025, a 7.4% CAGR, while net income nearly doubled from the 2022 trough of $1.82B to $3.84B—producing a 23.8% earnings CAGR and lifting reported ROE to 20.2%. Free cash flow of $5.75B against a $36.87B equity value is a 15.6% FCF yield; the balance sheet carries only $4.37B of debt against $18.98B of equity (D/E 0.23), and the 15% payout ratio leaves ample capacity for buybacks on top of the 1.7% dividend. Recent quarters reinforce rather than fade the story: the June 2026 quarter printed $7.26B of revenue and a 17.9% net margin, the best in the eight-quarter window, after a string of mid-teens margins that already sit well above the 2024 run-rate. At 10.2x trailing earnings and 2.1x book, the market is simply not paying for a 20% ROE compounder that is still growing mid-single digits on the top line.

What the quantitative stack calls a 164% discount to a ~$350 composite fair value is directionally right and numerically excessive. Insurance terminal-value math is brittle: a modest haircut to long-run growth or a permanent 100–200 bp lift in catastrophe load collapses those DCFs quickly, and the “pricing in –10% annual FCF decline” framing in the thesis layer overstates how much pure mean-reversion the multiple already embeds. Still, even a conservative 12–13x on normalized earnings power in the mid-$3.5B range, or 1.6–1.8x tangible book with a mid-teens ROE, lands well north of $136. The archetype label of mature earner fits; the fair-value verdict from the synthesis understates how cheap the cash-flow yield is relative to peers that trade closer to 12–14x with inferior ROEs. Insider activity is noise—awards and a gift, no open-market selling—and does not contradict the fundamental picture.

The cleanest bear case is cyclical, not structural. Commercial lines pricing is rolling over after multi-year hard-market gains; loss-cost inflation in liability and property has not fully normalized; and a single elevated cat year can erase several quarters of underwriting margin in a way the trailing 17.9% net margin does not preview. Revenue growth has already decelerated on a recent YoY basis to roughly 6%, and the market-forces layer is correct that Hartford lacks a differentiated moat beyond underwriting discipline and a diversified book. If the combined ratio drifts 300–400 bp worse and earnings settle closer to $2.8–3.0B rather than the current $3.8B run-rate, a 10x multiple is no longer a bargain—it is average pay for average results. That is the specific data an opponent would cite, and it is why I refuse to underwrite the $350 target even while rejecting the current price as fair.

I would flip to fairly valued or overvalued on two concrete signals: a sustained combined-ratio move above the mid-90s with management guiding to permanent pricing pressure, or two consecutive quarters of negative earnings growth alongside rising catastrophe loads that force reserve strengthening. Conversely, another year of ROE above 18%, FCF above $5B, and continued capital return at the current payout-plus-buyback cadence without balance-sheet stress would push conviction higher and justify a re-rating toward 13x. Until then the stock is a cash-compounding insurer the market prices as if the last three years of margin expansion were almost entirely luck.

Big-3 Panel — where each AI stands
Each AI above independently stated a direction (undervalued, fairly valued, or overvalued) and how strongly it believes it (conviction, 0–5). We combine those into a Bull-Bear Index on a 0–10 scale: 5 is neutral, 10 is maximum bullish (undervalued at full conviction), 0 is maximum bearish. We compute the score ourselves with the same arithmetic for every seat — the models never grade their own bullishness — so the three are directly comparable. Δ shows how far each seat sits from the panel average of 8.3; a large Δ marks the dissenting voice, usually the one worth reading.
Claude claude-opus-4-7 8.0
undervalued · conviction 3/5 · Δ -0.3 vs panel · self: 6.0
GPT gpt-5.4 8.0
undervalued · conviction 3/5 · Δ -0.3 vs panel · self: 7.0
Grok grok-4.5 9.0
undervalued · conviction 4/5 · Δ +0.7 vs panel · self: 7.0
Advanced Analysis Forensic deep-dive · separate lenses
Separate reads — Company Quality (is it a great business?), Valuation (is it mispriced?), and General Sentiment (how macro + narrative are pushing it), kept deliberately apart · 2026-08-22 16:49:11
Delvantic - Cairn AI
Quality — wait for a dip, small starter OK 6/10
Hartford is a genuinely well-run insurance compounder trading right at fair value — a name to own on a dip, not chase at $136.
The cruxWhether you're willing to pay a fair (not cheap) price for a mid-single-digit EPS grower with a 6-7% total shareholder yield, or wait for the tape to hand you a real discount.
Forensic checks Derived mechanically from HIG's filed financials — not from the AI lenses
Liquidity & RunwaySelf-Funding
DilutionShare Count Shrinking
Earnings QualityGood Earnings Quality
The four lensesswitch a tab for its full read — score + evidence
Company Quality
+63
Strong
edge √Σ 113 · risk √Σ 39 · conf 7/10

The Hartford is executing cleanly as a mature diversified insurer. Revenue has climbed from $21.65B (2021) to $28.07B (2025), net income from $2.37B to $3.84B, and free cash flow has stepped up to $5.75B - $5.76B in the last two years. Cash conversion is excellent: OCF/NI at 1.81x and accruals at -2.7% of assets indicate reported earnings are backed by real cash, not accounting stretch. Per-share value is being concentrated, not diluted - diluted shares fell from 1.61B in 2021 to 288M in 2025 (note: the 2021 figure looks anomalous and likely reflects a data artifact, but the 334M to 288M trajectory from 2022 to 2025 is a genuine 4%/yr buyback pace on top of a rising earnings base). The Altman Z of 1.06 flagged as 'distress' is a false positive - the Z-score is not calibrated for insurers, whose balance sheets are structurally leveraged with policyholder reserves. Net debt of -$4.19B and only $177M of liquid cash look thin in isolation, but $5.75B of annual FCF makes the capital structure comfortably serviceable. Insider tape is entirely routine director awards and one gift - no open-market buys or sells, so no directional signal either way. This is a well-run, cash-generative insurance franchise in a durable improving trend.

Strengths 3
m70
Consistent earnings and revenue growth
Revenue +30% over four years ($21.65B to $28.07B); net income +62% ($2.37B to $3.84B). Steady mature-earner compounding.
m65
High-quality cash earnings
OCF/NI 1.81x and accruals -2.7% of assets - earnings are cash-backed. FCF $5.75B in 2025 exceeds net income of $3.84B.
m60
Aggressive share count reduction
Diluted shares fell from 334M (2022) to 288M (2025), roughly 4-5%/yr - meaningful per-share value concentration on top of rising earnings.
Concerns 2
m30
Altman Z in distress zone
Z of 1.06 flagged as distress, but this metric is unreliable for insurers whose reserves inflate liabilities by design. Treat as low signal.
m25
Thin liquid cash relative to size
$177M liquid cash and -$4.19B net debt mean the balance sheet relies on investment portfolio and cash generation, not a cash cushion - typical for insurers but worth noting.
This is a genuinely well-run mature insurer. Numbers hang together: cash flow exceeds earnings, buybacks are real and material, and the growth trajectory is steady rather than promotional. The distress-zone Altman flag is a model mis-application to an insurance balance sheet and I discount it. My hesitation on going higher is simply that insurance quality ultimately lives in underwriting discipline and reserve adequacy, which I can't verify from these summary lines - I'd want to see combined ratios and prior-year development before calling this fortress-tier. As presented, solidly in the Strong bucket.
Verify before trusting this (5)
  • Combined ratio trend by segment (P&C Commercial, Personal Lines, Group Benefits) to confirm underwriting discipline
  • Reserve development history - favorable vs adverse prior-year development
  • Investment portfolio credit quality and duration mismatch risk
  • Reason for the 2021 diluted share count of 1.61B vs 334M in 2022 (likely data anomaly)
  • Capital return policy split between buyback and dividend, and holding-company liquidity vs regulated-sub dividend capacity
Valuation / Mispricing
-43
Fairly Valued
edge √Σ 30 · risk √Σ 76 · conf 6/10
Price $136 vs my skeptical deserved value ~$125-140; gap is roughly zero — fairly valued. attractive below $115.00

The e2e composite fair value of $343 and signal-adjusted $360 imply HIG should trade at ~14-15x normalized earnings of ~$24/share, which is not how the market prices mature P&C insurers. Peers (TRV, CB, ALL) trade at 11-13x forward earnings, and HIG's own multi-year multiple has clustered in the 10-12x range. Applying an 11x multiple to ~$11 of run-rate EPS lands near $120-135 deserved value, essentially where the stock trades. The DCF at $418 and anchored-PE at $195 both look like runaway methods that don't respect the sector's cost-of-capital or cyclicality; I heavily discount them. Earnings quality is good and buybacks are real, which supports deserved value at the upper end of the peer band but does not create a discount. The bull case (fortress balance sheet, disciplined underwriting) is largely already in the price; the bear case (softening combined ratios, loss-cost inflation) is the reason a mid-teens multiple isn't warranted. Net: this is a quality business the market understands and prices correctly. No meaningful margin of safety at $136, but no obvious overvaluation either.

Cheap signals 1
m30
Real buybacks and clean earnings
Good earnings-quality signal plus material share-count reduction supports deserved value at the top of the peer band, keeping HIG from being outright expensive.
Rich / priced-in 3
m55
Composite FV is a runaway output
A $343 composite FV (2.5x price) on a mature P&C insurer implies a 14-15x multiple no diversified insurer sustains through a cycle; the DCF ($418) and anchored-PE ($195) are not sanity-checked against sector reality.
m40
Trades in line with peers
HIG's ~12x forward P/E sits right in the TRV/CB/ALL band; nothing in the multiple screams discount for a business the market has followed for decades.
m35
Cycle risk not in the price
Combined ratios are tightening as competition and loss-cost inflation persist; a mid-cycle multiple applied to peak-ish underwriting margins overstates deserved value.
I don't see a mispricing here. The $343 composite FV is not credible for a mature diversified insurer — it would require the market to permanently re-rate HIG to a growth-stock multiple, which won't happen. At $136 I'm paying a fair price for a well-run compounder, which is fine but not an edge. I'd want it closer to $115 (roughly 10x normalized) before I'd call it a valuation buy; above $150 it starts to get rich.
Verify before trusting this (4)
  • Forward combined ratio guidance and any reserve development in the next 10-Q
  • Net investment income run-rate as portfolio yields reset
  • Buyback pace and remaining authorization
  • Any commercial lines pricing deceleration in management commentary
General Sentiment
-17
Balanced
tail √Σ 33 · head √Σ 50 · conf 6/10

HIG is a textbook steady-compounder with minimal narrative intensity and low cult coefficient - the market simply is not telling a story about this name in either direction. In a nascent risk-on tape (regime +32, VIX 15.1), high-beta story stocks like Moderna are absorbing all the oxygen; a 0.46-beta diversified insurer barely registers. That means the modest tailwind from a calm tape lands soft here, and the absence of any active bull narrative means there is no sentiment lift to speak of. Analyst tone and news flow are quiet - no revisions, no catalysts, no sector rotation into insurance. The one real crosswind is macro: 10y at 4.69% and a 25.7 market PE are a background headwind for all equities, but for a P&C insurer with a large investment portfolio, higher rates are ambiguous - they pressure the multiple but support net investment income, so the pass-through to HIG sentiment is muted. Net: a stock the tape is neither punishing nor rewarding, drifting on its own fundamentals rather than being pushed by external pressure.

Tailwinds 2
m22
Calm risk-on tape, softly applied
Regime is nascent risk-on (+32) with VIX 15.1, but HIG's 0.46 beta means the tape barely moves this name. A mild positive, not a driver.
m25
Defensive profile in an uncertain macro
Diversified insurance with a fortress balance sheet is exactly the kind of low-beta, cash-returning name that holds up when the tape wobbles - a latent tailwind if VIX ticks up.
Headwinds 3
m30
Rates and market PE overhang
10y 4.69% and market PE 25.7 are a broad equity headwind; for a diversified insurer the effect is ambiguous (NII benefit offsets multiple compression), so the pressure is real but diluted.
m35
No narrative, no sponsorship
Minimal narrative intensity and low cult coefficient mean no story-driven bid. In a tape where breakout narratives (Moderna, AI) are hoarding attention, sleepy compounders like HIG get passed over by flows.
m20
Fed-hike chatter in the news flow
Recent headlines flag Fed officials favoring hikes to combat inflation; incrementally negative for equity multiples broadly, but HIG's rate sensitivity cuts both ways.
This is a Balanced read leaning very slightly negative. HIG is a low-beta, story-less name in a market that is currently rewarding narrative and beta - so even a modestly risk-on tape does not lift it, and the rate/PE overhang provides a soft, persistent drag. There is no active narrative collapse or de-rating cohort effect here; the stock is simply being ignored, which is its own kind of headwind for a name whose bull case requires the market to eventually notice the DCF discount. I would not fight the tape either way - the sentiment force on this ticker is genuinely weak, and price action will be driven by fundamentals, not by flows.
Verify before trusting this (4)
  • Any sell-side target revisions or downgrades on P&C insurers as loss-cost inflation data prints
  • Signs of sector rotation into or out of financials/insurance as the risk-on regime matures
  • Catastrophe season news flow (hurricane, wildfire) that could inject a bear narrative
  • Analyst tone on combined ratio trajectory heading into the next print
The market-wide tape + this name's exposure to it (beta / sector / narrative durability). Context on the non-fundamental pressure — not a call on the business or the price. processId: detail-general-sentiment
Growth Outlook
+4
Growing
edge √Σ 99 · risk √Σ 94 · conf 7/10

The world is paying Hartford twice right now: higher rates lift the float's earning power while post-2021 casualty and property rate hardening still earns through the book. Both are cycle gifts, not inventions. The structural question is what happens as commercial pricing converges on loss trend — Hartford's answer is small-commercial density and underwriting discipline, which is a real but modest moat, not a growth engine. The signal conflict matters: a 'contraction' sector demand score sits against 8.5% industry revenue CAGR and expanding margins. Resolved, that most likely means a still-profitable but late-cycle P&C market where price increases fade before margins do. Judged against a price-implied -10% growth rate, the market appears to be underwriting a hard-landing scenario for underwriting margins that the evidence does not support.

Growth drivers 4
m65
Commercial P&C rate carryover plus exposure growth
Business/Commercial Lines written pricing has run above loss trend for several years; earned premium lags written, so revenue growth of roughly 6% has visible mechanical support into the next 4-6 quarters even as new-business rate decelerates. Small commercial (Spectrum/Icon) retention plus exposure inflation adds volume without underwriting concession.
m54
Investment income repricing at a 4.69% 10-year
A large short-duration fixed-income book rolls maturing low-coupon paper into materially higher yields; with rates holding near current levels this is a non-discretionary earnings tailwind independent of underwriting, and it directly explains part of the 23% earnings YoY versus 6% revenue YoY.
m34
Personal auto/home margin normalization completed
Rate increases already earned in have restored personal lines profitability, converting a prior drag into a contributor. This is a one-time level shift that supports year-1 earnings but does not repeat as a growth rate.
m38
Industry-wide margin expansion
Landscape shows +4.8pp net margin expansion and 8.5% revenue CAGR across the diversified insurance category — the pool Hartford competes in is still expanding, so growth does not require share capture.
Growth risks 4
m65
Decelerating quarterly trend into softening commercial pricing
Revenue confidence flags a decelerating quarterly trend. Property and workers' comp rates are the softest part of the cycle; workers' comp reserve releases that have flattered results are finite. Earnings growth of 23% cannot persist as rate change converges toward loss trend.
m51
Casualty loss inflation / social inflation
General liability and commercial auto severity trends continue to run ahead of initial picks industry-wide. Adverse development in recent accident years would hit exactly the segment that is driving Hartford's premium growth, compressing earnings even with revenue intact.
m28
Catastrophe and quarterly volatility
The -9% estimate miss in the record shows cat load can break a quarter regardless of underlying trend; this caps confidence in any above-consensus near-term call.
m36
Sector demand cycle reading contraction
Demand score -2 with macro headwinds conflicts with the healthy industry revenue CAGR. If it reflects genuine capacity build-up and softening pricing, top-line growth compresses toward low-single-digit by years 2-3.
vs expectations: ~6m inline · 1y inline · 2-3y above
The forward growth verdict — is the business itself likely to grow (next 2 quarters / year 1 / years 2–3), judged against its category and against printed expectations. The full horizon ladder + creme renders on the Growth Outlook card above. Not a call on the price (Valuation owns that) or the tape (Sentiment owns that).
Please log in to view trade setups
The Augustus trade-setup read is a members feature.
Log in
Lenses kept deliberately separate — Company Quality (price-agnostic), Valuation (price-conditional), General Sentiment (non-fundamental macro/narrative pressure), and Growth Outlook (the forward growth verdict). The scores are not blended. Filing-level items (convertibles, lock-ups, customer concentration) are v2 — see each lens's "verify."
Price Prediction
Higher +11.7% v0.6.0 View full prediction →

When we made this prediction on Aug 23, 2026, HIG was $136.10. We expect it to be $152.00 by Feb 2027, and we consider it great value under $115.00. This is an early model (v0.6.0) — the direction is more reliable than the exact price. Made Aug 23, 2026.

Price when predicted$136.10
Our estimate for Feb 2027$152.00+11.7%
Great value below$115.00
Price history shown (6 Months)

Blue is our prediction, starting the day we made it. Grey is a slower route to the same place — the same destination, taking longer. Black is the actual price, so you can see how we are doing.

Community AI Feedback
No community reviews yet for HIG. Be the first — hit How to Contribute, have any AI review this page, and paste its take back here.
My Notes personal — only you see this
v1.1.562 · 9b2927c4 · 2026-08-22 16:52:06