Financial Comparison: U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) and SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC)

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) and U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

70.6% of SEI Investments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 23.6% of U.S. Global Investors shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.8% of SEI Investments shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.2% of U.S. Global Investors shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for SEI Investments and U.S. Global Investors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SEI Investments	0	1	6	0	2.86
U.S. Global Investors	0	0	1	0	3.00

SEI Investments currently has a consensus target price of $122.60, indicating a potential upside of 11.06%. Given SEI Investments’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe SEI Investments is more favorable than U.S. Global Investors.

Dividends

SEI Investments pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. U.S. Global Investors pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. SEI Investments pays out 18.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. U.S. Global Investors pays out 34.6% 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. SEI Investments has increased its dividend for 34 consecutive years.

Risk and Volatility

SEI Investments has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, U.S. Global Investors has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SEI Investments and U.S. Global Investors”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SEI Investments	$2.45 billion	5.41	$715.30 million	$5.67	19.47
U.S. Global Investors	$10.25 million	3.61	-$330,000.00	$0.26	11.46

SEI Investments has higher revenue and earnings than U.S. Global Investors. U.S. Global Investors is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SEI Investments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares SEI Investments and U.S. Global Investors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SEI Investments	28.85%	29.16%	22.68%
U.S. Global Investors	29.81%	6.68%	6.28%

Summary

SEI Investments beats U.S. Global Investors on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SEI Investments

SEI Investments Company is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides wealth management, retirement and investment solutions, asset management, asset administration, investment processing outsourcing solutions, financial services, and investment advisory services to its clients. It provides its services to private banks, independent financial advisers, institutional investors, investment managers, investment advisors, wealth management organizations, corporations, retirement scheme sponsors, not-for-profit organizations, hedge fund managers, registered investment advisers, independent broker-dealers, financial planners, life insurance agents, defined-benefit schemes, defined-contribution schemes, endowments, foundations, and board-designated fund, through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm manages separate client-focused portfolios. It also launches and manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds, through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm invests in public equity and fixed income markets. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on top-down and bottom-up analysis to make its investments, through its subsidiaries. SEI Investments Company was founded in 1968 and is based in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

About U.S. Global Investors

U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. It primarily provides its services to investment companies. The firm is a large advisory firm, an investment adviser to an investment company which provides portfolio management for investment companies. The firm manages and launches equity/balanced funds, fixed income funds and other funds. It also manages hedge funds. The firm primarily invests in no-load mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is based in San Antonio, Texas.