Polar Capital (POLR) Competitors

AJ Bell (LON:AJB) and Polar Capital (LON:POLR) are both small-cap financial services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, dividends, community ranking, media sentiment, profitability, risk, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, AJB or POLR?

AJ Bell has higher revenue and earnings than Polar Capital. Polar Capital 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	£244.98M	7.64	£81.33M	£0.20	2,270.00
Polar Capital	£197.25M	2.45	£40.79M	£0.42	1,211.90

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in AJB or POLR?

49.9% of AJ Bell shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.1% of Polar Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 29.6% of AJ Bell shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.0% of Polar Capital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Is AJB or POLR a better dividend stock?

AJ Bell pays an annual dividend of GBX 12 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. Polar Capital pays an annual dividend of GBX 46 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.0%. AJ Bell pays out 6,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Polar Capital pays out 10,952.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor AJB or POLR?

Polar Capital received 289 more outperform votes than AJ Bell when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.53% of users gave Polar Capital an outperform vote while only 42.70% of users gave AJ Bell an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
AJ Bell	Outperform Votes 38 42.70%	Underperform Votes 51 57.30%
Polar Capital	Outperform Votes 327 65.53%	Underperform Votes 172 34.47%

Is AJB or POLR more profitable?

AJ Bell has a net margin of 33.20% compared to Polar Capital's net margin of 20.68%. AJ Bell's return on equity of 49.62% beat Polar Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AJ Bell	33.20%	49.62%	36.07%
Polar Capital	20.68%	29.27%	14.85%

Do analysts prefer AJB or POLR?

AJ Bell currently has a consensus target price of GBX 487.50, indicating a potential upside of 7.38%. Polar Capital has a consensus target price of GBX 542.50, indicating a potential upside of 6.58%. Given AJ Bell's higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe AJ Bell is more favorable than Polar Capital.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AJ Bell	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Polar Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the media favor AJB or POLR?

In the previous week, AJ Bell had 6 more articles in the media than Polar Capital. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for AJ Bell and 0 mentions for Polar Capital. AJ Bell's average media sentiment score of 0.48 beat Polar Capital's score of 0.00 indicating that AJ Bell is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
AJ Bell	Neutral
Polar Capital	Neutral

Which has more risk and volatility, AJB or POLR?

AJ Bell has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Polar Capital has a beta of 1.14, indicating that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

AJ Bell beats Polar Capital on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.