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 investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, community ranking, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and media sentiment.

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%

Do analysts rate AXP or COF?

American Express currently has a consensus target price of $296.38, suggesting a potential upside of 0.39%. Capital One Financial has a consensus target price of $198.50, suggesting a potential downside of 0.94%. Given American Express' higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe American Express is more favorable than Capital One Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Express	3 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25
Capital One Financial	0 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	10 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.63

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of AXP or COF?

84.3% of American Express shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.8% of Capital One Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Express shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Capital One Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable earnings & 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	3.14	$10.13B	$14.01	21.07
Capital One Financial	$53.94B	1.42	$4.75B	$11.59	17.29

Does the media refer more to AXP or COF?

In the previous week, American Express had 16 more articles in the media than Capital One Financial. MarketBeat recorded 59 mentions for American Express and 43 mentions for Capital One Financial. American Express' average media sentiment score of 1.36 beat Capital One Financial's score of 0.87 indicating that American Express is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
American Express	51 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Capital One Financial	23 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is AXP or COF a better dividend stock?

American Express pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Capital One Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. American Express pays out 20.0% 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.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer AXP or COF?

Capital One Financial received 73 more outperform votes than American Express when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 64.76% of users gave Capital One Financial an outperform vote while only 59.95% of users gave American Express an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
American Express	Outperform Votes 1193 59.95%	Underperform Votes 797 40.05%
Capital One Financial	Outperform Votes 1266 64.76%	Underperform Votes 689 35.24%

Which has more volatility and risk, AXP or COF?

American Express has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Capital One Financial has a beta of 1.47, meaning that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

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