Head-To-Head Review: Citizens (CIA) versus Its Peers

Citizens (NYSE:CIA – Get Rating) is one of 44 public companies in the “Life insurance” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare Citizens to similar businesses based on the strength of its risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens and its rivals revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$250.55 million	$36.79 million	5.76
Citizens Competitors	$20.22 billion	$1.69 billion	10.47

Citizens’ rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Citizens. Citizens is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Citizens and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	0	1	0	3.00
Citizens Competitors	613	2136	2306	84	2.36

Citizens currently has a consensus price target of $8.40, suggesting a potential upside of 97.18%. As a group, “Life insurance” companies have a potential upside of 22.21%. Given Citizens’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Citizens is more favorable than its rivals.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

22.6% of Citizens shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.5% of shares of all “Life insurance” companies are held by institutional investors. 0.9% of Citizens shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.8% of shares of all “Life insurance” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens and its rivals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	14.68%	18.04%	2.71%
Citizens Competitors	10.00%	7.98%	0.88%

Volatility and Risk

Citizens has a beta of 0.23, meaning that its share price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Citizens’ rivals have a beta of 0.83, meaning that their average share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Citizens rivals beat Citizens on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

About Citizens (Get Rating)

Citizens, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides life insurance products in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Life Insurance and Home Service Insurance. The Life Insurance segment issues ordinary whole life insurance and endowment policies in the United States dollar-denominated amounts to non-U.S. residents in through independent marketing agencies and consultants. The Home Service Insurance segment offers final expense life insurance and property insurance policies to middle-and lower-income households, as well as whole life products in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. This segment provides its products and services through funeral homes and independent agents. The company also provides health insurance policies. Citizens, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.