GrowthTurtle
Data Science PhD & IEEE Fellow, Ex-Two Sigma
Root looks expensive at 16x next year's earnings when insurers usually get 12x. Fair value is about $29.78-37.90, or 12x next year's expected $2.82 EPS give or take 12%, so the stock trades about 22% above the top of that range. The view rests on reported earnings and estimates only, with no fundamental work. x.comÂ
Root is an interesting company with an ambitious CEO, but it belongs in the too-hard pile without any edge in judging insurance businesses, despite encouraging fundamentals noted by others. x.comÂ
Lemonade looks expensive once valued as what it is, an insurance company. Replying to @javierluraschi's post on the stock, any price above 1x revenue is expensive for an insurer. x.comÂ
Root is extremely cheap, with nearly all the downside priced in but barely any of the potential upside. Net of cash, its enterprise value is just $670M, or 0.47x premiums in force, and it has generated $61M of net income so far in 2026. x.comÂ
Lemonade looks good but not good enough after a lofty price and high expectations into earnings, so it needs to get cheaper before it is worth buying. In-force premium grew 32% and revenue 79% as it approaches positive cash flow by the end of 2026; the low $40s or $30s would be the level to buy more. x.com x.comÂ
Root looks cheap at about 7x earnings while buying back shares, with proven fully loaded economics. Even after $25.3 million of sales and marketing and $32 million of partner acquisition costs, it earned $25 million of GAAP profit with a 92.1% combined ratio. Lemonade grows much faster and may have more upside if retention and cross-sell deliver, but its case rests on modeled lifetime value and its shareholders keep getting diluted. Root's premium volume is roughly flat to down. x.com x.com … Show more
Root is cheap and could be a better buy than Lemonade here, because it is proving it can grow and make money at the same time. It picked the difficult personal auto market and executed exceptionally, with underwriting improving quarter after quarter and capital-efficient scaling showing up as high ROIC. The market will likely reward that. The choice versus Lemonade, which is building a long-term insurance brand, remains nuanced and depends on what an investor wants. x.comÂ
Root, the car insurtech company, has a huge market and trades at a single-digit P/E if its first-quarter results hold. x.comÂ
