Henderson Smaller Companies (HSL) Competitors

HgCapital Trust (LON:HGT) and Henderson Smaller Companies (LON:HSL) are both financial services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation and community ranking.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in HGT or HSL?

HgCapital Trust received 29 more outperform votes than Henderson Smaller Companies when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 68.64% of users gave Henderson Smaller Companies an outperform vote while only 62.15% of users gave HgCapital Trust an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
HgCapital Trust	Outperform Votes 110 62.15%	Underperform Votes 67 37.85%
Henderson Smaller Companies	Outperform Votes 81 68.64%	Underperform Votes 37 31.36%

Which has more risk & volatility, HGT or HSL?

HgCapital Trust has a beta of 0.44, meaning that its share price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Henderson Smaller Companies has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media refer more to HGT or HSL?

In the previous week, HgCapital Trust had 4 more articles in the media than Henderson Smaller Companies. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for HgCapital Trust and 0 mentions for Henderson Smaller Companies. HgCapital Trust's average media sentiment score of 1.78 beat Henderson Smaller Companies' score of 0.00 indicating that HgCapital Trust is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
HgCapital Trust	Very Positive
Henderson Smaller Companies	Neutral

Do insiders & institutionals hold more shares of HGT or HSL?

41.7% of HgCapital Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 31.1% of Henderson Smaller Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.4% of HgCapital Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Henderson Smaller Companies shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, HGT or HSL?

HgCapital Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Henderson Smaller Companies. Henderson Smaller Companies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HgCapital 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
HgCapital Trust	£312.64M	7.45	£284.58M	£60.49	8.30
Henderson Smaller Companies	£98.67M	5.77	£91.77M	£124.85	6.22

Is HGT or HSL a better dividend stock?

HgCapital Trust pays an annual dividend of GBX 7 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Henderson Smaller Companies pays an annual dividend of GBX 27 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. HgCapital Trust pays out 11.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Henderson Smaller Companies pays out 21.6% 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.

Is HGT or HSL more profitable?

Henderson Smaller Companies has a net margin of 93.00% compared to HgCapital Trust's net margin of 91.03%. Henderson Smaller Companies' return on equity of 13.76% beat HgCapital Trust's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HgCapital Trust	91.03%	11.93%	6.88%
Henderson Smaller Companies	93.00%	13.76%	7.47%

Summary

HgCapital Trust beats Henderson Smaller Companies on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.