Financial Review: AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) & DigitalBridge Group (NYSE:DBRG)

DigitalBridge Group (NYSE:DBRG) and AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Dividends

DigitalBridge Group pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. AllianceBernstein pays an annual dividend of $4.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.4%. DigitalBridge Group pays out 133.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AllianceBernstein pays out 112.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AllianceBernstein is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of DigitalBridge Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.3% of AllianceBernstein shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of DigitalBridge Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of AllianceBernstein shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares DigitalBridge Group and AllianceBernstein’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DigitalBridge Group	10.98%	4.29%	2.06%
AllianceBernstein	9.46%	17.88%	17.87%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for DigitalBridge Group and AllianceBernstein, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DigitalBridge Group	0	1	7	2	3.10
AllianceBernstein	0	4	2	0	2.33

DigitalBridge Group currently has a consensus target price of $16.39, suggesting a potential upside of 106.28%. AllianceBernstein has a consensus target price of $37.50, suggesting a potential upside of 1.44%. Given DigitalBridge Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe DigitalBridge Group is more favorable than AllianceBernstein.

Risk and Volatility

DigitalBridge Group has a beta of 1.68, indicating that its stock price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AllianceBernstein has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares DigitalBridge Group and AllianceBernstein”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DigitalBridge Group	$607.03 million	2.28	$185.28 million	$0.03	264.83
AllianceBernstein	$461.95 million	8.85	$423.37 million	$3.72	9.94

AllianceBernstein has lower revenue, but higher earnings than DigitalBridge Group. AllianceBernstein is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than DigitalBridge Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

DigitalBridge Group beats AllianceBernstein on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DigitalBridge Group

DigitalBridge is an infrastructure investment firm specializing in digital infrastructure assets. They provide services to institutional investors. They primarily invest in data centers, cell towers, fiber networks, small cells, and edge infrastructure. DigitalBridge Group, Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida with additional offices in Los Angles, California, and New York New York.

About AllianceBernstein

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm is a related adviser The firm manages separate client focused portfolios for its clients. The firm primarily invests in common and preferred stocks, warrants and convertible securities, government and corporate fxed-income securities, commodities, currencies, real estate-related assets and infation-protected securities. The firm employs quantitative analysis along with long-term purchases, short-term purchases, trading, short sales, margin transactions, option strategies including writing covered options, uncovered options and spread strategies to make its investments. The firm obtains external research to complement its in-house research. The firm was formerly known as Alliance Capital Management Holding LP. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. was founded in 1967 and is based in Nashville,Tennessee.