CI Financial (CIXXF) Competitors

Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) and CI Financial (NYSE:CIXXF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, media sentiment, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, community ranking and analyst recommendations.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in HLI or CIXXF?

Houlihan Lokey received 292 more outperform votes than CI Financial when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 61.09% of users gave Houlihan Lokey an outperform vote while only 0.00% of users gave CI Financial an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Houlihan Lokey	Outperform Votes 292 61.09%	Underperform Votes 186 38.91%
CI Financial	Outperform Votes No Votes	Underperform Votes 7 100.00%

Do analysts rate HLI or CIXXF?

Houlihan Lokey currently has a consensus target price of $174.20, suggesting a potential downside of 0.68%. Given Houlihan Lokey's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Houlihan Lokey is more favorable than CI Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Houlihan Lokey	2 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.83
CI Financial	1 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.50

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in HLI or CIXXF?

78.1% of Houlihan Lokey shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.7% of Houlihan Lokey shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, HLI or CIXXF?

Houlihan Lokey has higher revenue and earnings than CI Financial. CI Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Houlihan Lokey, 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
Houlihan Lokey	$2.12B	5.75	$280.30M	$4.89	35.87
CI Financial	$2.03B	1.52	$3.72M	-$0.33	-65.18

Is HLI or CIXXF more profitable?

Houlihan Lokey has a net margin of 15.77% compared to CI Financial's net margin of -2.28%. CI Financial's return on equity of 57.73% beat Houlihan Lokey's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Houlihan Lokey	15.77%	19.29%	11.61%
CI Financial	-2.28%	57.73%	5.23%

Does the media prefer HLI or CIXXF?

In the previous week, Houlihan Lokey had 3 more articles in the media than CI Financial. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for Houlihan Lokey and 2 mentions for CI Financial. Houlihan Lokey's average media sentiment score of 1.28 beat CI Financial's score of -0.14 indicating that Houlihan Lokey is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Houlihan Lokey	3 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
CI Financial	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral

Is HLI or CIXXF a better dividend stock?

Houlihan Lokey pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. CI Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.59 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Houlihan Lokey pays out 46.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CI Financial pays out -178.8% 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. CI Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has more volatility and risk, HLI or CIXXF?

Houlihan Lokey has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CI Financial has a beta of 1.43, suggesting that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Houlihan Lokey beats CI Financial on 16 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.