Critical Survey: Vericity (VERY) vs. Its Peers

Vericity (NASDAQ:VERY) is one of 41 public companies in the “Life insurance” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Vericity to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, profitability, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Vericity has a beta of 0.14, meaning that its share price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vericity’s competitors have a beta of 0.83, meaning that their average share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

1.9% of Vericity shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.8% of shares of all “Life insurance” companies are owned by institutional investors. 10.4% of Vericity shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 14.2% of shares of all “Life insurance” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Vericity and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vericity	0	0	0	0	N/A
Vericity Competitors	360	2355	2041	73	2.38

As a group, “Life insurance” companies have a potential upside of 50.70%. Given Vericity’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Vericity has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Vericity and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vericity	$177.57 million	-$9.89 million	-16.74
Vericity Competitors	$21.18 billion	$1.29 billion	7.25

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

Profitability

This table compares Vericity and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vericity	-5.57%	-9.13%	-1.23%
Vericity Competitors	6.46%	13.42%	1.05%

Summary

Vericity competitors beat Vericity on 10 of the 10 factors compared.

About Vericity

Vericity, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides life insurance protection products for the middle American market. The company operates through Agency and Insurance segments. The Agency segment sells life insurance products for unaffiliated insurance companies through its call center distribution platform, as well as through its independent agents and other marketing organizations. This segment is also involved in the insurance lead sale activities through its eCoverage web presence. The Insurance segment provides term life, accidental death, and final expense products. Vericity, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Des Plaines, Illinois.