Kinsale Capital Group (NYSE:KNSL) & Citizens (NYSE:CIA) Head to Head Survey

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) and Kinsale Capital Group (NYSE:KNSL) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Citizens and Kinsale Capital Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$255.62 million	0.90	$14.59 million	$0.21	19.61
Kinsale Capital Group	$1.87 billion	4.60	$503.61 million	$22.95	16.70

Kinsale Capital Group has higher revenue and earnings than Citizens. Kinsale Capital Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Citizens, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

13.7% of Citizens shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.4% of Kinsale Capital Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Citizens shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.6% of Kinsale Capital Group shares 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.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens and Kinsale Capital Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	4.55%	4.73%	0.63%
Kinsale Capital Group	26.89%	25.73%	8.07%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Citizens and Kinsale Capital Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	1	1	2	0	2.25
Kinsale Capital Group	2	8	1	0	1.91

Citizens presently has a consensus target price of $5.50, suggesting a potential upside of 33.53%. Kinsale Capital Group has a consensus target price of $352.88, suggesting a potential downside of 7.94%. Given Citizens’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Citizens is more favorable than Kinsale Capital Group.

Risk and Volatility

Citizens has a beta of 0.46, indicating that its share price is 54% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kinsale Capital Group has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its share price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Kinsale Capital Group beats Citizens on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Citizens

Citizens, Inc. provides life insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company 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 provides accident and health insurance policies. Citizens, Inc. was founded in 1969 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Kinsale Capital Group

Kinsale Capital Group, Inc., a specialty insurance company, engages in the provision of property and casualty insurance products in the United States. The company’s commercial lines offerings include commercial property, small business casualty and property, excess and general casualty, construction, allied health, life sciences, entertainment, energy, environmental, excess professional, health care, public entity, commercial auto, inland marine, aviation, ocean marine, product recall, and railroad, as well as product, professional, and management liability insurance. It markets and sells its insurance products in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands primarily through a network of independent insurance brokers. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia.