Critical Survey: Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE:FMS) vs. Cigna Group (NYSE:CI)

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE:FMS) and Cigna Group (NYSE:CI) are both large-cap healthcare companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA and Cigna Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA	5	6	0	0	1.55
Cigna Group	0	7	15	0	2.68

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA currently has a consensus price target of $23.57, suggesting a potential upside of 3.93%. Cigna Group has a consensus price target of $339.45, suggesting a potential upside of 20.17%. Given Cigna Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Cigna Group is more favorable than Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA and Cigna Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA	$22.20 billion	0.55	$1.11 billion	$1.93	11.75
Cigna Group	$274.90 billion	0.27	$5.96 billion	$24.17	11.69

Cigna Group has higher revenue and earnings than Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA. Cigna Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

8.4% of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.0% of Cigna Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Cigna Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA pays an annual dividend of $0.61 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Cigna Group pays an annual dividend of $6.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA pays out 31.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cigna Group pays out 25.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Cigna Group has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA and Cigna Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA	4.83%	9.28%	4.16%
Cigna Group	2.27%	19.75%	5.34%

Volatility & Risk

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cigna Group has a beta of 0.31, indicating that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Cigna Group beats Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA

Fresenius Medical Care AG provides dialysis and related services for individuals with renal diseases in Germany, North America, and internationally. The company offers dialysis treatment and related laboratory and diagnostic services through a network of outpatient dialysis clinics; materials, training, and patient support services comprising clinical monitoring, follow-up assistance, and arranging for delivery of the supplies to the patient's residence; and dialysis services under contract to hospitals in the United States for the hospitalized end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and for patients suffering from acute kidney failure. It also develops, manufactures, and distributes various health care products, including polysulfone dialyzers, hemodialysis machines, peritoneal dialysis cyclers, peritoneal dialysis solutions, hemodialysis concentrates, solutions and granulates, bloodlines, renal pharmaceuticals, systems for water treatment, and acute cardiopulmonary and apheresis products. In addition, the company develops, acquires, and in-licenses renal pharmaceuticals; offers renal medications and supplies to patients at homes or to dialysis clinics; and provides vascular, cardiovascular, endovascular specialty, vascular care ambulatory surgery center, and physician nephrology and cardiology services. The company sells its products to dialysis clinics, hospitals, and specialized treatment clinics directly, as well as through local sales forces, independent distributors, dealers, and sales agents. Fresenius Medical Care AG was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Bad Homburg, Germany.

About Cigna Group

The Cigna Group, together with its subsidiaries, provides insurance and related products and services in the United States. Its Evernorth Health Services segment provides a range of coordinated and point solution health services, including pharmacy benefits, home delivery pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, distribution, and care delivery and management solutions to health plans, employers, government organizations, and health care providers. The company's Cigna Healthcare segment offers medical, pharmacy, behavioral health, dental, and other products and services for insured and self-insured customers; Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, and Medicare Part D plans for seniors, as well as individual health insurance plans; and health care coverage in its international markets, as well as health care benefits for mobile individuals and employees of multinational organizations. In addition, it offers permanent insurance contracts sold to corporations to provide coverage on the lives of certain employees for financing employer-paid future benefit obligations. The company distributes its products and services through insurance brokers and consultants; directly to employers, unions and other groups, or individuals; and private and public exchanges. The company was formerly known as Cigna Corporation and changed its name to The Cigna Group in February 2023. The Cigna Group was founded in 1792 and is headquartered in Bloomfield, Connecticut.