NN Group (OTCMKTS:NNGPF) & Citizens (NYSE:CIA) Critical Review

Citizens (NYSE:CIA) and NN Group (OTCMKTS:NNGPF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Citizens and NN Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Citizens	0	1	0	0	2.00
NN Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Citizens and NN Group”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	0.93	$14.59 million	$0.35	13.49
NN Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	($0.22)	-424.42

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Citizens	7.12%	7.21%	0.96%
NN Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.7% of Citizens shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.3% of NN Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Citizens shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Citizens beats NN Group on 9 of the 9 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 NN Group

NN Group N.V., a financial services company, provides life and non-life insurance products in the Netherlands and internationally. The company operates through Netherlands Life, Netherlands Non-life, Insurance Europe, Japan Life, Banking, and Other segments. It offers Life insurance products, such as group and individual pension products, retail life insurance, and SME life insurance products; and non-life insurance products, including motor, fire, liability, transport, travel, health, property and casualty, and disability and accident insurance products. The company also provides banking services, including mortgage loans, bank annuities, consumer savings, and retail savings and investment products; reinsurance services; and retirement products and services. It offers its products to individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and Corporates customers directly through tied agents, agents/ brokers, platform insurance, and direct channels. The company was formerly known as ING Insurance Topholding N.V. and changed its name to NN Group N.V. in March 2014. NN Group N.V. was founded in 1845 and is headquartered in the Hague, the Netherlands.