Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust (ASL) Competitors

St. James's Place (LON:STJ) and Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust (LON:ASL) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking and risk.

Is STJ or ASL more profitable?

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust has a net margin of 93.74% compared to St. James' Place's net margin of -0.03%. Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust's return on equity of 19.45% beat St. James' Place's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
St. James's Place	-0.03%	-0.55%	0.22%
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust	93.74%	19.45%	11.67%

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

79.6% of St. James's Place shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.3% of Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of St. James's Place shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 10.4% of Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is STJ or ASL a better dividend stock?

St. James's Place pays an annual dividend of GBX 14 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust pays an annual dividend of GBX 42 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. St. James's Place pays out -140,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust pays out 1,377.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Which has more risk and volatility, STJ or ASL?

St. James's Place has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust has a beta of 1.38, meaning that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor STJ or ASL?

In the previous week, Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust had 1 more articles in the media than St. James's Place. MarketBeat recorded 1 mentions for Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust and 0 mentions for St. James's Place. Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.77 beat St. James' Place's score of 0.00 indicating that Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
St. James's Place	Neutral
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust	Very Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in STJ or ASL?

St. James's Place received 660 more outperform votes than Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 72.81% of users gave Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust an outperform vote while only 72.77% of users gave St. James's Place an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
St. James's Place	Outperform Votes 743 72.77%	Underperform Votes 278 27.23%
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust	Outperform Votes 83 72.81%	Underperform Votes 31 27.19%

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, STJ or ASL?

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust has lower revenue, but higher earnings than St. James's Place. St. James's Place is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust, 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
St. James's Place	£26.80B	0.17	-£6.60M	-£0.01	-84,900.00
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust	£274.39M	4.48	£257.22M	£3.05	479.34

Do analysts recommend STJ or ASL?

St. James's Place presently has a consensus price target of GBX 784.25, suggesting a potential downside of 7.63%. Given St. James' Place's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe St. James's Place is more favorable than Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
St. James's Place	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Summary

Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust beats St. James's Place on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.