4 companies · median 14 of 36 checks · prices as of 2026-09-08
Insurance carriers stocks.
Sorted by how many checks each one passes. Sort by any column to see who is cheapest, who is growing, or who has the strongest balance sheet - and how that compares with what is normal for the industry.
Ranked by checks passed
4 of 201 covered companies→There is real spread here - Progressive (PGR) leads on 21 of 36 checks, UnitedHealth (UNH) trails on 12, with a median of 14.
→BRK-B, UNH, PGR are 96% of the $1.64T we cover here, so a sector average says more about them than about the rest.
 ProgressivePGRinsurerSells car and home insurance direct and through agents, and prices it on driving data.ReportFact sheet | -1.8% | -6.2% | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 21/36 |
 CignaCIinsurerA health insurer and, through Evernorth, one of the largest pharmacy-benefit managers.ReportFact sheet | -2.4% | -8.1% | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 14/36 |
 Berkshire HathawayBRK-BWarren Buffett's conglomerate: insurance, a railroad, utilities, manufacturers and a stock portfolio.ReportFact sheet | -0.0% | +1.2% | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 13/36 |
 UnitedHealthUNHinsurerAmerica's largest health insurer, plus the Optum health services and pharmacy business.ReportFact sheet | +0.9% | +30.5% | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 12/36 |
Every filing behind this table closes on 2026-06-30; prices are the close of 2026-09-08. Each name links to its full report; every score is a count of pass-or-fail checks read from that company's own filings.
Where the sector falls short
median score per axis→Trend analysis is where the insurance carriers we cover come up short most often, at a median of 1 of 6, while Shareholder returns runs at 5.
| Value | ●●○○○○ | 2 of 6 |
| Growth | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Quality | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Health | ●●●○○○ | 3 of 6 |
| Shareholder returns | ●●●●●○ | 5 of 6 |
| Trend analysis | ●○○○○○ | 1 of 6 |
What a normal margin looks like here
sector percentiles · 24 filers→Operating margin clusters among insurance carriers, from 2% to 8% across the middle of the field, with a midpoint of 4% measured over 24 filers.
| Metric | Bottom third | Midpoint | Top third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating margin n=24 | 1.9% | 4.4% | 8.4% |
| Net margin n=105 | 6.0% | 9.5% | 16.6% |
| Return on equity n=101 | 8.4% | 14.5% | 17.8% |
Who grows, and who keeps it
every company in the industry→UNH does both: growing faster than this industry's middle and keeping more of each sale than it does. The industry's middle is 12% growth on a 4% margin. CI does neither.
A year of price
not a fact about the business→2 of 4 are up over twelve months and the median move is -2.5% - UnitedHealth (UNH) at +30.5% against Cigna (CI) at -8.1%. Price is not a fact about a business, and the Trend chapter of each report says what it is measured on.
Head to head
2 pairsThe table above gives the order. These put two of them in one column each, so you can see where the difference actually is.