EQH vs HMN: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: EQH is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. EQH and HMN share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined EQH and HMN exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Equitable Holdings runs three connected businesses. Retirement is the biggest: individual and group annuities and retirement products, about $189 billion of assets at mid-2026, sold heavily through Equitable Advisors, a network of roughly 4,600 licensed financial professionals that also feeds a $141 billion wealth management arm. Asset Management is its roughly 68% ownership of AllianceBernstein, the active manager that ended the second quarter of 2026 with $905 billion of assets under management and a $91 billion private markets platform that Equitable itself has seeded with $25 billion of general account capital. What used to be a large life insurance operation is now mostly ceded: in July 2025 Equitable closed a deal with RGA reinsuring 75% of its in-force individual life block, about $18 billion of general account and $14 billion of separate account reserves, which released over $2 billion of value and pushed the company further toward fee and spread income. The business traces back to 1859 and reached public markets through AXA's 2018 IPO.

Full EQH guide

Horace Mann Educators Corporation, founded by two Springfield, Illinois teachers in 1945, sells insurance and retirement products to a deliberately narrow customer base: K-12 educators, school administrators and support staff, plus a widening set of other public-sector and community workers. It reports three segments. Property & Casualty writes personal auto and homeowners policies. Life & Retirement sells individual life insurance and, more importantly, 403(b) tax-deferred annuities and related retirement plans inside school districts. Supplemental & Group Benefits sells cancer, heart, accident, disability and short-term care coverage, largely through the worksite channel that came with the 2019 NTA acquisition and the 2022 Madison National group-benefits deal. Distribution runs through exclusive agents, an independent agent network and payroll-slot access at school districts, which is the asset that is hard for a generalist insurer to copy.

Full HMN guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• EQH drivers: The Corebridge merger and the new parent company; Retirement flows and the annuity franchise.
• HMN drivers: Property and casualty margin durability; The worksite and supplemental channel.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The merger is the near-term binary. For HMN, catastrophe exposure is the largest single swing factor: the property book concentrates in the Midwest and South, and a severe convective storm season can move the combined ratio by several points in a quarter, as it did before the current recovery.

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick EQH if you believe its drivers more; HMN if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the EQH and HMN guides.

EQH. At about $51.87 the stock sits near seven to eight times its second quarter operating earnings annualized, the kind of multiple annuity writers usually carry because their GAAP results swing with hedging rather than with the business. The gap between $488 million of operating profit and a $453 million net loss is almost entirely non-economic, driven by fair value changes in market risk benefits and the derivatives used to hedge them. Assets under management and administration hit a record $1.175 trillion, up 10% year over year. Every per-share figure here is pre-merger: at close each share converts into 1.55516 shares of the new parent, so price and EPS both rebase.

HMN. Insurers are usually valued on price to book alongside earnings, because book value is close to the economic capital behind the policies. Horace Mann spent much of the post-2020 period trading below or near book while the auto and home book was unprofitable, so the current level near 1.4 times book reflects the underwriting recovery and the low-teens return on equity that came with it. The guided $4.60 to $4.90 core EPS range assumes a normal-ish catastrophe load, which is the assumption most likely to be tested in any given year.

Headline figures (approximate, August 2026): EQH shows share price / market cap ~$51.87, ~$14.1B, revenue (ttm) ~$10.6B, non-gaap operating eps (q2 2026) ~$1.70 (~$1.75 ex-notable items, up ~24% y/y), gaap result (q2 2026) net loss of ~$453M, or ~$1.68 per share; HMN shows revenue (ttm) ~$1.75 billion (Q2 2026 was ~$443.5 million, up ~7.7% year over year), core earnings (q2 2026) ~$48.2 million, or ~$1.17 per share; net income ~$41.6 million (~$1.01 per share), 2026 guidance core EPS of ~$4.60 to ~$4.90; net investment income of ~$465 million to ~$475 million, p&c combined ratio (q2 2026) ~89.6% overall, ~93.1% auto and ~84.6% property.

EQH and HMN are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined EQH and HMN exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.