Financial Survey: Chubb (NYSE:CB) vs. Citizens (NYSE:CIA)

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) and Chubb (NYSE:CB) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Citizens and Chubb, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	1	2	0	2.67
Chubb	1	12	7	2	2.45

Citizens currently has a consensus price target of $5.50, suggesting a potential upside of 52.57%. Chubb has a consensus price target of $360.77, suggesting a potential upside of 7.74%. Given Citizens’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Citizens is more favorable than Chubb.

Volatility & Risk

Citizens has a beta of 0.43, indicating that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Chubb has a beta of 0.37, indicating that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens and Chubb’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%
Chubb	18.10%	14.47%	4.19%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

13.7% of Citizens shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.8% of Chubb shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Citizens shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Chubb shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens and Chubb”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Citizens	$255.62 million	0.79	$14.59 million	$0.21	17.17
Chubb	$59.40 billion	2.17	$10.31 billion	$28.27	11.84

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

Summary

Chubb beats Citizens on 10 of the 15 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 Chubb

Chubb Limited provides insurance and reinsurance products worldwide. The company's North America Commercial P&C Insurance segment offers commercial property, casualty, workers' compensation, package policies, risk management, financial lines, marine, construction, environmental, medical risk, cyber risk, surety, and casualty; and group accident and health insurance to large, middle market, and small commercial businesses. Its North America Personal P&C Insurance segment provides affluent and high net worth individuals and families with homeowners, automobile and collector cars, valuable articles, personal and excess liability, travel insurance, and recreational marine insurance and services. The company's North America Agricultural Insurance segment offers multiple peril crop and crop-hail insurance; and coverage for farm, ranch, and specialty property and casualty, and commercial agriculture products. Its Overseas General Insurance segment provides coverage for traditional commercial property and casualty; specialty categories, such as financial lines, marine, energy, aviation, political risk, and construction; and group accident and health, and traditional and specialty personal lines for corporations, middle markets, and small customers through retail brokers, agents, and other channels. The company's Global Reinsurance segment offers traditional and specialty reinsurance under the Chubb Tempest Re brand to property and casualty companies. Its Life Insurance segment provides protection and savings products comprising whole life, endowment plans, individual and life, group term life, health protection, personal accident, credit life, universal life, group employee benefits, and unit linked contracts. It markets its products primarily through insurance and reinsurance brokers. The company was formerly known as ACE Limited and changed its name to Chubb Limited in January 2016. Chubb Limited was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.