CENTENE CORPORATION vs Oscar Health, Inc., two Managed Care stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
Neither insurer earns its keep this year, and the capital returns say it plainly: Centene's return on equity is negative 30%, wrecked by Medicaid rate-lag and writedowns, Oscar's negative 2.4%, an individual-market startup still buying scale. The shapes of failure differ: Centene is an established giant, $33B of market value, earning below zero on business it has run for decades; Oscar is $10B of venture-stage insurance whose 15.2% operating margin nets negative on financing and taxes. Both free-cash figures, 21.8% and 28.5%, are premium float, not yield. Neither has a multiple. A buyer here is choosing between a broken incumbent priced for repair and an unproven challenger priced for arrival, in the least forgiving corner of health insurance.
Comparison updated 2026-07-10.
| Metric | CNC | OSCR |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $65.73 | $29.79 |
| Market cap | $32.6B | $9.8B |
| Sector | Managed Care | Managed Care |
| Stage | Growth | Growth |
| P/B | 1.51 | 5.89 |
| P/S | 0.16 | 0.74 |
| EV/EBITDA | — | 309.2 |
| Revenue growth | +17.4% | +30.5% |
| Gross margin | 11.3% | — |
| Operating margin | 3.7% | 15.2% |
| Net margin | -3.3% | -0.3% |
| Return on equity | -30.0% | -2.4% |
| Return on assets | -7.9% | -0.4% |
| Return on invested capital | -14.1% | 0.5% |
| FCF yield | 21.8% | 28.5% |
| Debt / equity | 0.76 | 0.26 |
| Current ratio | 1.12 | 1.09 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 3.09 | 2.14 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 6 / 9 | 8 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.