Financial Comparison: UWM (NYSE:UWMC) versus LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE)

UWM (NYSE:UWMC) and LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends, risk, profitability, earnings and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares UWM and LendingTree”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
UWM	$2.16 billion	3.91	$14.40 million	($0.05)	-105.90
LendingTree	$900.22 million	0.83	-$41.70 million	($4.06)	-13.47

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

Risk & Volatility

UWM has a beta of 1.79, meaning that its share price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LendingTree has a beta of 1.71, meaning that its share price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for UWM and LendingTree, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UWM	1	6	2	0	2.11
LendingTree	1	2	6	2	2.82

UWM currently has a consensus price target of $6.46, indicating a potential upside of 22.08%. LendingTree has a consensus price target of $65.38, indicating a potential upside of 19.56%. Given UWM’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe UWM is more favorable than LendingTree.

Profitability

This table compares UWM and LendingTree’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UWM	0.48%	-5.56%	-0.72%
LendingTree	-5.33%	25.79%	3.46%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

53.6% of UWM shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.3% of LendingTree shares are held by institutional investors. 94.1% of UWM shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.4% of LendingTree shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

UWM beats LendingTree on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About UWM

UWM Holdings Corporation engages in the residential mortgage lending business in the United States. The company offers mortgage loans through wholesale channel. It originates primarily conforming and government loans. UWM Holdings Corporation was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Pontiac, Michigan.

About LendingTree

LendingTree, Inc., through its subsidiary, operates online consumer platform in the United States. It operates through three segments: Home, Consumer, and Insurance. The Home segment offers purchase mortgage, refinance mortgage, and home equity loans and lines of credit; and real estate brokerage services. The Consumer segment provides credit cards; personal, small business, student, and auto loans; deposit accounts; and other credit products, such as debt settlement services. The Insurance segment includes information, tools, and access to insurance quote products, including home, automobile, and health and Medicare through which consumers are matched with insurance lead aggregators to obtain insurance offers and policies. In addition, the company offers QuoteWizard, a marketplace for insurance comparison; ValuePenguin, a personal finance website that offers consumers objective analysis on various financial topics from insurance to credit cards; and Stash, a consumer investing and banking platform that offers a suite of personal investment accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs, custodial investment accounts, and banking services, including checking accounts and debit cards with a Stock-Back rewards program. The company was formerly known as Tree.com, Inc. and changed its name to LendingTree, Inc. in January 2015. LendingTree, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.