Income & Growth VCT (IGV) Competitors

The Merchants Trust (LON:MRCH) and Income & Growth VCT (LON:IGV) are both small-cap financial services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability and media sentiment.

Is MRCH or IGV a better dividend stock?

The Merchants Trust pays an annual dividend of GBX 29 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. Income & Growth VCT pays an annual dividend of GBX 10 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.1%. The Merchants Trust pays out 39.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Income & Growth VCT pays out 257.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of MRCH or IGV?

6.1% of The Merchants Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.4% of The Merchants Trust shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Income & Growth VCT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has higher valuation and earnings, MRCH or IGV?

The Merchants Trust has higher revenue and earnings than Income & Growth VCT. The Merchants Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Income & Growth VCT, 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
The Merchants Trust	£119.93M	6.55	£109.11M	£73.21	7.21
Income & Growth VCT	£17.88M	11.35	£12.71M	£3.88	15.96

Does the MarketBeat Community favor MRCH or IGV?

The Merchants Trust received 52 more outperform votes than Income & Growth VCT when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 59.18% of users gave Income & Growth VCT an outperform vote while only 55.48% of users gave The Merchants Trust an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
The Merchants Trust	Outperform Votes 81 55.48%	Underperform Votes 65 44.52%
Income & Growth VCT	Outperform Votes 29 59.18%	Underperform Votes 20 40.82%

Does the media refer more to MRCH or IGV?

In the previous week, The Merchants Trust had 2 more articles in the media than Income & Growth VCT. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for The Merchants Trust and 0 mentions for Income & Growth VCT. Income & Growth VCT's average media sentiment score of 0.00 beat The Merchants Trust's score of -0.10 indicating that Income & Growth VCT is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
The Merchants Trust	Neutral
Income & Growth VCT	Neutral

Is MRCH or IGV more profitable?

The Merchants Trust has a net margin of 90.97% compared to Income & Growth VCT's net margin of 71.12%. The Merchants Trust's return on equity of 13.03% beat Income & Growth VCT's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
The Merchants Trust	90.97%	13.03%	7.70%
Income & Growth VCT	71.12%	5.16%	4.76%

Which has more volatility & risk, MRCH or IGV?

The Merchants Trust has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Income & Growth VCT has a beta of 0.19, meaning that its share price is 81% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

The Merchants Trust beats Income & Growth VCT on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.