ECN Capital (ECN) Competitors

Home Capital Group (TSE:HCG) and ECN Capital (TSE:ECN) are both small-cap financial services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, media sentiment, community ranking and profitability.

Which has more volatility and risk, HCG or ECN?

Home Capital Group has a beta of 1.94, indicating that its share price is 94% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ECN Capital has a beta of 1.35, indicating that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of HCG or ECN?

33.1% of Home Capital Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.2% of ECN Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Home Capital Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of ECN Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, HCG or ECN?

Home Capital Group has higher revenue and earnings than ECN Capital. ECN Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Home Capital Group, 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
Home Capital Group	C$512.55M	0.00	C$174.16M	C$4.48	N/A
ECN Capital	C$131.39M	4.17	-C$32.06M	-C$0.22	-12.20

Does the MarketBeat Community favor HCG or ECN?

Home Capital Group received 13 more outperform votes than ECN Capital when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.53% of users gave ECN Capital an outperform vote while only 45.99% of users gave Home Capital Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Home Capital Group	Outperform Votes 333 45.99%	Underperform Votes 391 54.01%
ECN Capital	Outperform Votes 320 66.53%	Underperform Votes 161 33.47%

Do analysts prefer HCG or ECN?

ECN Capital has a consensus target price of C$2.77, suggesting a potential upside of 1.47%. Given ECN Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe ECN Capital is more favorable than Home Capital Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Home Capital Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
ECN Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Does the media prefer HCG or ECN?

In the previous week, ECN Capital had 1 more articles in the media than Home Capital Group. MarketBeat recorded 1 mentions for ECN Capital and 0 mentions for Home Capital Group. ECN Capital's average media sentiment score of 0.59 beat Home Capital Group's score of 0.00 indicating that ECN Capital is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Home Capital Group	Neutral
ECN Capital	Positive

Is HCG or ECN more profitable?

Home Capital Group has a net margin of 33.98% compared to ECN Capital's net margin of -24.40%. Home Capital Group's return on equity of 10.77% beat ECN Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Home Capital Group	33.98%	10.77%	0.77%
ECN Capital	-24.40%	-21.93%	-4.85%

Is HCG or ECN a better dividend stock?

Home Capital Group pays an annual dividend of C$0.60 per share. ECN Capital pays an annual dividend of C$0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Home Capital Group pays out 13.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ECN Capital pays out -17.9% 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. ECN Capital is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Home Capital Group and ECN Capital tied by winning 9 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.