Citizens Inc. Stock Upgraded (CIA)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Citizens (NYSE:CIA) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, reasonable valuation levels and good cash flow from operations. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Compared to its closing price of one year ago, CIA's share price has jumped by 36.07%, exceeding the performance of the broader market during that same time frame. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, CIA should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 13.1%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 4.1%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displaying stagnant earnings per share.
• CIA has no debt to speak of therefore resulting in a debt-to-equity ratio of zero, which we consider to be a relatively favorable sign.
• Net operating cash flow has slightly increased to $15.21 million or 6.16% when compared to the same quarter last year. Despite an increase in cash flow, CITIZENS INC's cash flow growth rate is still lower than the industry average growth rate of 32.78%.

Citizens, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides life and health insurance policies in the United States and internationally. It primarily offers whole life insurance, endowments, credit insurance, final expense, and limited liability property policies. The company has a P/E ratio of 52.8, below the average insurance industry P/E ratio of 53.5 and above the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Citizens has a market cap of $439.7 million and is part of the financial sector and insurance industry. Shares are down 7.3% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

You can view the full Citizens Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

For more information on Citizens Inc. click any of the following:

• Citizens Inc. Stock Price

• Citizens Inc. Analyst Ratings

• Citizens Inc. Key Stats & Profile

• Citizens Inc. Earnings

• Citizens Inc. Ratio Comparison

• Citizens Inc. Growth Rates

• Citizens Inc. Balance Sheet

• Citizens Inc. Cash Flow

• Citizens Inc. Income Statement