Financial Survey: Abacus Life (NASDAQ:ABL) vs. Hennessy Advisors (NASDAQ:HNNA)

Abacus Life (NASDAQ:ABL) and Hennessy Advisors (NASDAQ:HNNA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Abacus Life and Hennessy Advisors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Abacus Life	-6.19%	7.02%	3.53%
Hennessy Advisors	22.53%	6.89%	4.16%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Abacus Life and Hennessy Advisors”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Abacus Life	$95.38 million	6.05	$9.52 million	$0.02	451.50
Hennessy Advisors	$24.02 million	3.25	$4.77 million	$0.79	12.87

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

Risk & Volatility

Abacus Life has a beta of 0.12, meaning that its stock price is 88% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hennessy Advisors has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

10.3% of Hennessy Advisors shares are owned by institutional investors. 47.0% of Abacus Life shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 37.8% of Hennessy Advisors shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Abacus Life and Hennessy Advisors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Abacus Life	0	0	5	1	3.17
Hennessy Advisors	0	0	0	0	N/A

Abacus Life presently has a consensus price target of $14.30, suggesting a potential upside of 58.36%. Given Abacus Life’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Abacus Life is more favorable than Hennessy Advisors.

Summary

Abacus Life beats Hennessy Advisors on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Abacus Life

Abacus Life, Inc. operates as an alternative asset manager specializing in life insurance products. It purchases life insurance policies from consumers seeking liquidity and manages policies over time via trading, holding, and/or servicing. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Orlando, Florida.

About Hennessy Advisors

Hennessy Advisors, Inc. is an employee owned investment manager. It provides its services to Hennessy Funds and investment companies. The firm launches and manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds. It invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. The firm primarily invests in growth stocks of companies. It conducts in-house research to make its investments. Hennessy Advisors, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is based in Novato, California with additional offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.