Financial Survey: Yuanbao (NASDAQ:YB) vs. Citizens (NYSE:CIA)

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) and Yuanbao (NASDAQ:YB) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Citizens and Yuanbao’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%
Yuanbao	29.91%	43.75%	29.78%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

13.7% of Citizens shares are held by institutional investors. 2.2% of Citizens shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Citizens has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Yuanbao has a beta of 0.56, meaning that its share price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Citizens and Yuanbao, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	1	2	0	2.67
Yuanbao	0	2	0	0	2.00

Citizens presently has a consensus target price of $5.50, indicating a potential upside of 55.59%. Yuanbao has a consensus target price of $21.80, indicating a potential upside of 68.47%. Given Yuanbao’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Yuanbao is more favorable than Citizens.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens and Yuanbao”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	0.77	$14.59 million	$0.21	16.83
Yuanbao	$5.04 billion	0.12	$181.88 million	$4.50	2.88

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

Summary

Yuanbao beats Citizens on 8 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 Yuanbao

Our mission is to protect health and well-being through technology. We are a leading technology-driven online insurance distributor in China. We take pride in pioneering the seamless integration of insurance with cutting-edge technologies, and have constructed a highly efficient full consumer service cycle engine. Through this engine, we successfully distribute suitable and high-quality insurance products to over ten million insurance consumers. According to Frost & Sullivan, we were the largest independent insurance distributor in China’s personal life and accident & health (A&H) insurance market in terms of first year premiums in 2023. Our engine enables us to provide customized services for each insurance consumer across personalized recommendation, purchasing, policy management, claim settlements and post-sales services. Built upon a scalable architecture, our engine is equipped with effective predictive capabilities generated from interconnected networks of models. This allows us to continually optimize model outcomes across different media channels, diverse consumer preferences and product depth and breadth. As of December 31, 2024, we had approximately 4,700 models supporting our operations. Our engine offers significant value propositions for insurance consumers and insurance carriers. We act as a unique and efficient gateway to distribute customized insurance products underwritten by our partnered insurance carriers. We have robust collaboration with insurance carriers by empowering them to tailor a variety of flagship insurance products, which in turn enables us to attract and retain a vast consumer base and stimulate their demand for insurance products. By accumulating and analyzing more big data, we gain deeper and wider understanding of consumer demands and behavior. Through all this, we are able to fulfill consumers’ evolving needs and enhance insurance carriers’ sales at the same time. We believe there is substantial untapped market potential for online insurance distribution. According to Frost & Sullivan, the penetration rate of online insurance sales still lags behind the penetration rate of online retail sales. Moreover, the penetration rate of online distribution for personal life and A&H insurance in China, in terms of gross written premium (“GWP”), is anticipated to double over the next five years. Driven by our engine and our market leading position, we are well-positioned to further penetrate this rapidly growing market. Our principal executive offices are located in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.