MediaAlpha, Inc.
- Open
- 12.21
- Day high
- 12.61
- Day low
- 12.12
- Prev close
- 12.30
- Volume
- 333K
- Mkt cap
- $664M
- P/E (TTM)
- 7.2
- EPS (TTM)
- $1.75
- P/B
- 23.4
- P/S
- 0.5
- Yield
- —
- Per share
- —
- ▼Insiders net selling -$11.5M over the last 3 months (0 open-market buys, 60 sales)
- 🏛Institutions mixed (13F)
MediaAlpha, Inc. (MAX) is a Communication Services company listed on NYSE. The stock is up 16% over the past year. Over the trailing 3 months, insiders filed 0 open-market buys and 60 sales (SEC Form 4). Drillr has 1 published research article covering MAX.
MediaAlpha, Inc. (MAX) financials & analyst ratings
Fundamentals (TTM)
Analyst consensus · 5 analysts
Source: exchange market data + company filings. Figures are trailing-twelve-month or as most recently reported. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
MAX earnings date, history & EPS estimates
| Report date | EPS est | EPS actual | Surprise | Revenue | Rev. surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 29, 2026 | $0.23 | $0.65 | +183.7% | $317M | +5.3% |
| Apr 29, 2026 | $0.25 | $0.21 | -16.0% | $310M | +3.7% |
| Feb 23, 2026 | $0.25 | $0.50 | +100.0% | $291M | +6.6% |
| Oct 29, 2025 | $0.21 | $0.26 | +23.8% | $307M | +3.4% |
| Apr 30, 2025 | $0.17 | $0.15 | -11.8% | $264M | +12.0% |
| Oct 30, 2024 | $0.13 | $0.17 | +30.8% | $259M | -3.1% |
| Jul 31, 2024 | $0.01 | $0.07 | +976.9% | $178M | +20.6% |
| May 1, 2024 | $-0.11 | $-0.02 | +81.8% | $127M | +14.8% |
| Feb 20, 2024 | $-0.21 | $-0.05 | +76.2% | $117M | +4.2% |
| Nov 1, 2023 | $-0.34 | $-0.29 | +14.7% | $75M | +6.8% |
| Aug 2, 2023 | $-0.35 | $-0.32 | +8.6% | $85M | +8.0% |
| May 4, 2023 | $-0.23 | $-0.23 | +0.0% | $112M | +0.7% |
MAX insider trading activity (SEC Form 4)
| Date | Insider | Type | Shares | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 26, 2026 | Nonko Eugenedirector | Sell | 8,205 | $12.99 |
| Aug 26, 2026 | Nonko Eugenedirector | Sell | 7,778 | $12.55 |
| Aug 26, 2026 | Nonko Eugenedirector | Sell | 3,282 | $12.99 |
| Aug 26, 2026 | Nonko Eugenedirector | Sell | 2,667 | $12.56 |
| Aug 19, 2026 | Nonko Eugenedirector | Sell | 3,282 | $12.82 |
| Aug 19, 2026 | Nonko Eugenedirector | Sell | 8,205 | $12.78 |
| Aug 17, 2026 | COYNE JEFFREY Bofficer: GENERAL COUNSEL AND SECRETARY | Tax | 5,224 | $13.17 |
| Aug 17, 2026 | Yeh Kuanling Amyofficer: Chief Technology Officer | Option | 4,803 | — |
| Aug 17, 2026 | Yeh Kuanling Amyofficer: Chief Technology Officer | Option | 5,303 | — |
| Aug 17, 2026 | COYNE JEFFREY Bofficer: GENERAL COUNSEL AND SECRETARY | Tax | 4,229 | $13.17 |
| Aug 17, 2026 | COYNE JEFFREY Bofficer: GENERAL COUNSEL AND SECRETARY | Tax | 2,542 | $13.17 |
| Aug 17, 2026 | Thompson Patrick Ryanofficer: See Remarks | Tax | 4,366 | $13.17 |
| Aug 17, 2026 | Yeh Kuanling Amyofficer: Chief Technology Officer | Sell | 12,000 | $13.55 |
| Aug 17, 2026 | Thompson Patrick Ryanofficer: See Remarks | Tax | 6,252 | $13.17 |
| Aug 17, 2026 | Cramer Keithofficer: Chief Revenue Officer | Option | 5,303 | — |
Source: MAX SEC Form 4 filings, latest Aug 26, 2026. For informational purposes only — not investment advice.
See the full MAX insider & 13F page →MediaAlpha, Inc. company profile
Overview
MediaAlpha, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAX) is a technology-driven insurance customer acquisition platform founded in 2014 and headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company went public in October 2020 and operates as a subsidiary of White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd. MediaAlpha has established itself as a leading marketplace connecting insurance carriers with potential customers across property and casualty, health, and life insurance verticals through its programmatic advertising platform.
Business
MediaAlpha operates in the digital insurance marketing industry, functioning as an intermediary marketplace that connects insurance carriers with consumers actively shopping for insurance products. The company's core offering is a programmatic advertising platform that enables insurance companies to bid in real-time for access to high-intent insurance shoppers. The platform works by partnering with hundreds of third-party publishers - websites, mobile apps, and digital properties where consumers begin their insurance shopping journey. When a consumer expresses interest in insurance (by filling out a form or requesting quotes), MediaAlpha's technology creates an auction where multiple insurance carriers can bid to connect with that specific customer. The highest bidding carrier wins the opportunity to provide a quote or engage with the consumer. MediaAlpha operates across three primary insurance verticals: 1. Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance - This includes auto, home, and other property insurance products and represents the company's largest and fastest-growing segment, accounting for approximately 82% of total transaction value as of recent quarters. This vertical has experienced explosive growth, with transaction values increasing over 200% year-over-year. 2. Health Insurance - This segment includes both Medicare Advantage plans for seniors and under-65 health insurance products. Health insurance represents approximately 18% of total transaction value, with the under-65 segment comprising about two-thirds of health vertical activity. This vertical has faced headwinds due to regulatory changes and market challenges. 3. Life Insurance - Though mentioned in the company description, this represents a smaller portion of the business and receives minimal focus in recent earnings discussions. The company measures its business performance primarily through Transaction Value, which represents the total dollar amount of bids processed through its platform, rather than traditional revenue metrics alone.
Revenue model
MediaAlpha operates a marketplace business model where it generates revenue by taking a percentage of the transaction value that flows through its platform. When insurance carriers bid for customer leads, MediaAlpha retains a portion of the winning bid amount as its revenue, similar to how other digital advertising platforms operate. The company's paying customers are insurance carriers - the insurance companies that want to acquire new customers. These include major national insurers, regional carriers, and specialty insurance providers who compete in real-time auctions to connect with consumers expressing interest in insurance products. MediaAlpha's revenue model is primarily transaction-based, where the company earns a percentage of each successful bid. The platform processed $1.5 billion in total transaction value in 2024, generating approximately $865 million in revenue, suggesting the company retains roughly 55-60% of transaction value as revenue. Several factors significantly impact MediaAlpha's margins and business performance: Margin-enhancing factors include increased carrier participation and competition (which drives up bid prices), improved economic conditions that encourage insurance shopping, regulatory changes that favor digital channels, and the company's ability to attract high-intent consumers through quality publisher partnerships. Margin-pressuring factors include economic downturns that reduce insurance shopping, hard market cycles where carriers prioritize profitability over growth (as experienced in 2022-2023), increased competition from other lead generation platforms, regulatory changes that restrict marketing practices, and the need to share revenue with publisher partners. The business is particularly sensitive to the insurance industry's underwriting cycles. During "hard markets" when carriers focus on profitability rather than growth, marketing spending decreases dramatically, directly impacting MediaAlpha's transaction volumes. Conversely, when carriers achieve rate adequacy and return to growth mode, transaction values can increase exponentially, as demonstrated by the 300%+ growth in P&C transaction value during 2024's recovery.
Competitive moat
MediaAlpha's competitive moat is moderately strong but faces several challenges. The company's primary moat stems from its network effects and scale advantages in the insurance lead generation marketplace. The company benefits from having established relationships with hundreds of publisher partners and major insurance carriers, creating a two-sided marketplace where more carriers attract more publishers and vice versa. MediaAlpha claims to be the "largest insurance customer acquisition media marketplace" with partnerships with 7 of the top 10 Medicare Advantage carriers, suggesting meaningful scale advantages. The platform's data and technology capabilities provide another layer of competitive advantage. The company's programmatic bidding technology, real-time optimization algorithms, and granular performance tracking capabilities help carriers achieve better returns on their marketing investments compared to traditional lead generation methods. However, MediaAlpha's moat faces significant challenges. The lead generation industry has relatively low barriers to entry, and the company competes with both specialized insurance marketing companies and large digital advertising platforms like Google and Facebook. The business model is also heavily dependent on regulatory environments - changes in telemarketing regulations (like TCPA consent rules) or insurance marketing regulations can quickly impact the entire industry. Additionally, insurance carriers increasingly seek to reduce their dependence on third-party lead generation by building direct-to-consumer capabilities or working directly with publishers. The company's position as a middleman, while valuable for aggregation and optimization, could be threatened by disintermediation efforts. The moat is further weakened by the cyclical nature of the insurance industry, where carriers can dramatically reduce marketing spending during hard market cycles, as demonstrated during 2022-2023 when P&C transaction values plummeted. This cyclicality limits the company's pricing power and makes long-term revenue predictability challenging.
Risks & safety
MediaAlpha presents a mixed margin of safety profile with both strengths and concerns: Overall Assessment: Moderate financial risk with improving fundamentals but elevated regulatory and operational uncertainties. • Cash and Liquidity: $63.6 million in cash and short-term investments with $23.6 million in free cash flow generation in Q1 2025, providing reasonable operational cushion • Debt and Solvency: High debt-to-equity ratio of 20.2x indicates significant leverage, though the company maintains positive operating cash flows of $23.7 million quarterly • Valuation Metrics: Trading at 64.9x price-to-book ratio, suggesting elevated valuation relative to tangible assets; EV/EBITDA of 1,316x reflects minimal EBITDA in recent quarter • Regulatory Risk: $12 million reserve for FTC settlement matters represents ongoing legal uncertainty that could expand • Operational Concerns: Recent $13.4 million write-off of intangible assets from CHT acquisition and decision to exit travel vertical indicate strategic pivots and asset impairments • Cyclical Exposure: Business highly sensitive to insurance industry cycles, with dramatic swings in performance based on carrier marketing appetite
Recent development
Over the past few years, MediaAlpha has undergone significant strategic evolution driven by market cycles and regulatory challenges. The company experienced a severe downturn during 2022-2023 when the property and casualty insurance market entered a "hard cycle," with carriers dramatically reducing marketing spending to focus on profitability rather than growth. This led to substantial declines in transaction value and negative EBITDA performance. The company's recovery began in late 2023 and accelerated through 2024, with P&C insurance transaction values growing over 300% year-over-year as carriers returned to marketing investments after achieving rate adequacy. This recovery was driven by improved carrier profitability and elevated consumer shopping behavior following years of insurance rate increases. In the health insurance vertical, MediaAlpha has been strategically pivoting its focus toward Medicare Advantage while scaling back its under-65 health insurance business. This shift reflects both market opportunities in the growing senior population and regulatory pressures in the under-65 segment. The company has strengthened partnerships with 7 of the top 10 Medicare Advantage carriers, positioning itself for long-term growth in this demographic trend. The company has also made strategic divestitures, including the decision to exit the travel vertical by Q2 2025 and write off $13.4 million in intangible assets from its Customer Helper Team (CHT) acquisition, indicating a focus on core insurance verticals. Regulatory challenges have become increasingly prominent, with MediaAlpha facing an ongoing FTC investigation related to its under-65 health insurance business practices. The company has established reserves for potential settlements and is actively engaging with regulators while maintaining its compliance posture. Investment priorities have shifted toward data science capabilities and expanding agent-based carrier partnerships, particularly in the P&C vertical where the company sees the strongest growth opportunities. The company is also preparing for new TCPA consent requirements that will impact shared lead generation practices, though management expects minimal impact on MediaAlpha's business model.
MAX company profile · for informational purposes only — not investment advice.
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