Sifting through countless of stocks in the Financial Services industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Klarna Group plc or Essent Group Ltd. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd.

Klarna Group plc operates as a digital bank and flexible payments provider in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Sweden, and internationally. The company offers payment solutions, such as Pay in Full solution that settles purchases at time of the transaction; Pay Later solution that enables customers to purchase goods and services at the time of the transaction and pay the full amount at a later date; and Fair Financing that allows consumers to pay for their purchase over a long duration. It also provides advertising solutions that include sponsored search, affiliate programs, and brand advertisement; digital retail banking solutions, such as deposit and saving account, financial insights, and Klarna balance that allow consumer to hold monetary balance with Klarna balance solutions; and payment channels, including Klarna payment, Klarna app, Klarna card, and Klarna in-store. In addition, the company offers membership programs, product search and price comparison, cashback offers and merchant deals, loyalty cards, wish lists, delivery tracking and returns, AI-enabled support, Klarna memberships, Klarna merchant portal, and on-site messaging solutions. The company was formerly known as Klarna UK II plc and changed its name to Klarna Group plc in December 2023. Klarna Group plc was founded in 2005 and is based in London, United Kingdom.

Essent Group Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides private mortgage insurance and reinsurance, and title insurance and settlement services to mortgage lenders, borrowers, and investors in the United States. It operates through two segments, Mortgage Insurance and Reinsurance. The company’s mortgage insurance products include primary, pool, and master policy. It also provides information technology maintenance and development services; customer support-related services; underwriting consulting services to third-party reinsurers; and contract underwriting services, as well as credit risk management products. In addition, the company offers title insurance and settlement services; and title insurance underwriting services. It serves the originators of residential mortgage loans, such as regulated depository institutions, mortgage banks, credit unions, and other lenders. Essent Group Ltd. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Latest Financial Services and Klarna Group plc, Essent Group Ltd. Stock News

As of October 9, 2026, Klarna Group plc had a $5.3 billion market capitalization, compared to the Financial Services median of $2.4 million. Klarna Group plc’s stock is down 51.7% in 2026, up 6.7% in the previous five trading days and down 66.61% in the past year.

Currently, Klarna Group plc does not have a price-earnings ratio. Klarna Group plc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $4.0 billion with a -3.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 26.6%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $0.060 per share for the current fiscal year. Klarna Group plc does not currently pay a dividend.

As of October 9, 2026, Essent Group Ltd. had a $5.6 billion market cap, putting it in the 70th percentile of all stocks. Essent Group Ltd.’s stock is down 4.4% in 2026, up 1.7% in the previous five trading days and up 4.83% in the past year.

Currently, Essent Group Ltd.’s price-earnings ratio is 8.7. Essent Group Ltd.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $1.3 billion with a 51.5% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 13.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $7.598 per share for the current fiscal year. Essent Group Ltd. currently has a 2.2% dividend yield.

How We Compare Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Klarna Group plc	KLAR	C
Essent Group Ltd.	ESNT	A

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Klarna Group plc has a Value Score of 41, which is Average. Essent Group Ltd. has a Value Score of 88, which is Deep Value.

The Value Stock Winner: Essent Group Ltd.

As you can clearly see from the Value Grade breakdown above, Essent Group Ltd. is considered to have better value than Klarna Group plc. For investors who focus solely on a company’s valuation, Essent Group Ltd. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd. Growth Grades

Company	Ticker	Growth
Klarna Group plc	KLAR	D
Essent Group Ltd.	ESNT	A

The foundation of growth investing is seeking out stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth that is expected to continue into the future.

In order to compute the growth score and assign it a letter grade, the percentile ranks for each of three components‐consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations‐must be determined. These three rank figures are added together, and the sum is ranked against the entire stock universe to arrive at a company’s Growth Score to create an equal distribution of grades.

The companies in the bottom 20% of the stock universe receive Growth Grades of F, considered to be very weak, while those in the top 20% receive A grades, which are considered very strong.

Klarna Group plc has a Growth Score of 37, which is Weak. Essent Group Ltd. has a Growth Score of 95, which is Very Strong.

The Growth Grade Winner: Essent Group Ltd.

As you can clearly see from the Growth Grade breakdown above, Essent Group Ltd. has a more attractive growth grade than Klarna Group plc. For investors who focus solely on how a company is growing relative to other companies in the same industry, Essent Group Ltd. could be a good stock to add to their portfolio. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Klarna Group plc	KLAR	D
Essent Group Ltd.	ESNT	A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Klarna Group plc has a Quality Score of 33, which is Weak. Essent Group Ltd. has a Quality Score of 83, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: Essent Group Ltd.

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, Essent Group Ltd. has a better overall quality grade than Klarna Group plc. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, Essent Group Ltd. could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Other Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd. Grades

In addition to Growth, Quality and Value, A+ Investor also provides grades for Momentum and Estimate Revisions.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Klarna Group plc or Essent Group Ltd. Stock?

Overall, Klarna Group plc stock has a Value Score of 41, Growth Score of 37 and Quality Score of 33.

Essent Group Ltd. stock has a Value Score of 88, Growth Score of 95 and Quality Score of 83.

Comparing Klarna Group plc and Essent Group Ltd.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.