Capital One Financial (COF) Competitors

American Express (NYSE:AXP) and Capital One Financial (NYSE:COF) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, media sentiment, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Is AXP or COF more profitable?

American Express has a net margin of 15.36% compared to Capital One Financial's net margin of 9.46%. American Express' return on equity of 32.65% beat Capital One Financial's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Express	15.36%	32.65%	3.56%
Capital One Financial	9.46%	9.45%	1.17%

Is AXP or COF a better dividend stock?

American Express pays an annual dividend of $3.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Capital One Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. American Express pays out 23.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Capital One Financial pays out 20.7% 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. Capital One Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has more risk and volatility, AXP or COF?

American Express has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Capital One Financial has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer AXP or COF?

In the previous week, American Express had 28 more articles in the media than Capital One Financial. MarketBeat recorded 68 mentions for American Express and 40 mentions for Capital One Financial. Capital One Financial's average media sentiment score of 1.07 beat American Express' score of 0.90 indicating that Capital One Financial is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Express	36 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	18 Neutral mention(s)	9 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Capital One Financial	21 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, AXP or COF?

American Express has higher revenue and earnings than Capital One Financial. Capital One Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than American Express, 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
American Express	$65.95B	2.72	$10.13B	$14.01	18.24
Capital One Financial	$39.11B	1.58	$4.75B	$11.59	14.01

Do analysts prefer AXP or COF?

American Express currently has a consensus price target of $296.81, indicating a potential upside of 16.14%. Capital One Financial has a consensus price target of $206.73, indicating a potential upside of 27.32%. Given Capital One Financial's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Capital One Financial is more favorable than American Express.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Express	2 Sell rating(s)	14 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.28
Capital One Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.89

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AXP or COF?

Capital One Financial received 89 more outperform votes than American Express when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.48% of users gave Capital One Financial an outperform vote while only 59.83% of users gave American Express an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
American Express	Outperform Votes 1196 59.83%	Underperform Votes 803 40.17%
Capital One Financial	Outperform Votes 1285 64.48%	Underperform Votes 708 35.52%

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in AXP or COF?

84.3% of American Express shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of Capital One Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Express shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Capital One Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Capital One Financial beats American Express on 12 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.