Critical Analysis: Vericity (VERY) versus The Competition

Vericity (NASDAQ:VERY) is one of 42 publicly-traded companies in the “Life insurance” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Vericity to related businesses based on the strength of its dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Risk & Volatility

Vericity has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its stock price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vericity’s competitors have a beta of 0.82, indicating that their average stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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	6.60%	12.97%	1.04%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Vericity and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vericity	$177.57 million	-$9.89 million	-16.74
Vericity Competitors	$20.59 billion	$1.26 billion	-20,441.40

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

Analyst Recommendations

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vericity	0	0	0	0	N/A
Vericity Competitors	360	2384	2041	73	2.38

As a group, “Life insurance” companies have a potential upside of 55.94%. Given Vericity’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Vericity has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.9% of Vericity shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.8% of shares of all “Life insurance” companies are owned by institutional investors. 10.4% of Vericity shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 14.3% of shares of all “Life insurance” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Vericity competitors beat Vericity on 9 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.