AJ Bell (AJB) Competitors

AJ Bell (LON:AJB) and St. James's Place (LON:STJ) are both mid-cap financial services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Which has stronger valuation and earnings, AJB or STJ?

AJ Bell has higher earnings, but lower revenue than St. James's Place. St. James's Place is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AJ Bell, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AJ Bell	£244.77M	8.81	£81.11M	£19.55	26.75
St. James's Place	£26.27B	0.27	-£6.46M	-£1.19	-1,096.56

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of AJB or STJ?

49.9% of AJ Bell shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.6% of St. James's Place shares are held by institutional investors. 29.6% of AJ Bell shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of St. James's Place shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts recommend AJB or STJ?

AJ Bell presently has a consensus price target of GBX 495, suggesting a potential downside of 5.35%. St. James's Place has a consensus price target of GBX 1,443.75, suggesting a potential upside of 10.35%. Given St. James' Place's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe St. James's Place is more favorable than AJ Bell.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AJ Bell	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20
St. James's Place	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.75

Is AJB or STJ a better dividend stock?

AJ Bell pays an annual dividend of GBX 12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. St. James's Place pays an annual dividend of GBX 14 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. AJ Bell pays out 61.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. St. James's Place pays out -1,173.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Does the media refer more to AJB or STJ?

In the previous week, St. James's Place had 13 more articles in the media than AJ Bell. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for St. James's Place and 0 mentions for AJ Bell. St. James' Place's average media sentiment score of 0.37 beat AJ Bell's score of 0.00 indicating that St. James's Place is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
AJ Bell	Neutral
St. James's Place	Neutral

Is AJB or STJ more profitable?

AJ Bell has a net margin of 33.14% compared to St. James' Place's net margin of -0.02%. AJ Bell's return on equity of 42.30% beat St. James' Place's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AJ Bell	33.14%	42.30%	36.07%
St. James's Place	-0.02%	-0.63%	0.22%

Which has more volatility and risk, AJB or STJ?

AJ Bell has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, St. James's Place has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

AJ Bell and St. James's Place tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.