TSC Ratings' Updates: Hartford

Since the same quarter one year prior, revenue slightly dropped by 4.3%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share. Net operating cash flow has slightly increased to $530.00 million, or 1.53%, when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, Embarq has also modestly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of negative 7.53%.

We rate Hartford Financial (HIG Quote) a sell. This is driven by several weaknesses, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share.

The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Insurance industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 409.2% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $851.00 million to negative $2,631.00 million.

Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Insurance industry and the overall market, Hartford's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.