Reviewing PhenixFIN (NYSE:PFX) & Cohen & Steers (NYSE:CNS)

Cohen & Steers (NYSE:CNS) and PhenixFIN (NYSE:PFX) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

51.5% of Cohen & Steers shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.3% of PhenixFIN shares are held by institutional investors. 45.4% of Cohen & Steers shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 25.2% of PhenixFIN shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Cohen & Steers and PhenixFIN, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cohen & Steers	0	2	1	0	2.33
PhenixFIN	0	0	0	1	4.00

Cohen & Steers presently has a consensus target price of $88.00, suggesting a potential upside of 20.24%. Given Cohen & Steers’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Cohen & Steers is more favorable than PhenixFIN.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cohen & Steers and PhenixFIN”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cohen & Steers	$556.12 million	6.77	$153.22 million	$3.26	22.45
PhenixFIN	$14.16 million	6.16	$18.62 million	$2.41	18.74

Cohen & Steers has higher revenue and earnings than PhenixFIN. PhenixFIN is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cohen & Steers, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Cohen & Steers has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PhenixFIN has a beta of 0.32, indicating that its stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Cohen & Steers pays an annual dividend of $2.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. PhenixFIN pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Cohen & Steers pays out 82.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. PhenixFIN pays out 19.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cohen & Steers has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years. Cohen & Steers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Cohen & Steers and PhenixFIN’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cohen & Steers	28.82%	27.41%	19.58%
PhenixFIN	72.98%	2.95%	1.68%

Summary

Cohen & Steers beats PhenixFIN on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cohen & Steers

Cohen & Steers, Inc. is a holding company, which operates as an investment manager specializing in liquid real assets, which include real estate securities, listed infrastructure, commodities, natural resource equities, preferred securities, and other income solutions. It manages investment vehicles, such as institutional accounts, open-end funds and closed-end funds. The company was founded by Martin Cohen and Robert Hamilton Steers in 1986 and is headquartered in New York, NY.

About PhenixFIN

PhenixFIN Corporation is a business development company. The firm seeks to invest in privately negotiated debt and equity securities of small and middle market companies. It primarily invests in the following sectors: business services; buildings and real estate; automobile; oil and gas; aerospace and defense; home and office furnishings, housewares, and durable consumer products; healthcare, education and childcare; personal, food, and miscellaneous services; retail stores, diversified or conglomerate manufacturing; telecommunications; mining, steel, iron, and non-precious metals; leisure, amusement, motion pictures, and entertainment; chemicals, plastics, and rubber; finance; personal and nondurable consumer products (manufacturing only); beverage, food, and tobacco; containers, packaging, and glass; structure finance securities; machinery (non-agriculture, non-construction, non-electric); diversified or conglomerate service; restaurant and franchise; electronics; and cargo transport. The fund seeks to invest in companies located in North America. The fund targets private debt transactions in companies with enterprise values or asset values between $25 million and $250 million. The fund seeks to invest in companies with debt investment values between $10 million and $50 million. It exits its investments between three years and seven years; it holds most of its investments to maturity or repayment, but may realize or sell some investments earlier. The fund may take a board seat on its investee companies and can also offer managerial assistance to certain portfolio companies. It structures its investments as first lien senior secured loans, second lien senior secured loans, senior secured notes, senior subordinated notes, subordinate notes, unitranche loans, and seeks warrants or other equity participation. The fund may co-invest in privately negotiated transactions under certain conditions. PhenixFIN Corporation was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in New York, New York.