Comparing Sprott (NYSE:SII) & SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC)

Sprott (NYSE:SII) and SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Dividends

Sprott pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. SEI Investments pays an annual dividend of $0.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Sprott pays out 62.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SEI Investments pays out 21.3% 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. Sprott has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and SEI Investments has increased its dividend for 34 consecutive years.

Risk & Volatility

Sprott has a beta of 1.04, meaning that its share price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SEI Investments has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

28.3% of Sprott shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 70.6% of SEI Investments shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.3% of Sprott shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.3% of SEI Investments shares are owned by company 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.

Profitability

This table compares Sprott and SEI Investments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sprott	27.53%	15.34%	12.47%
SEI Investments	27.77%	26.40%	22.99%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Sprott and SEI Investments, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sprott	0	0	2	0	3.00
SEI Investments	0	3	3	0	2.50

SEI Investments has a consensus target price of $96.00, indicating a potential upside of 5.34%. Given SEI Investments’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe SEI Investments is more favorable than Sprott.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Sprott and SEI Investments”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sprott	$178.65 million	10.46	$49.29 million	$1.92	37.71
SEI Investments	$2.13 billion	5.34	$581.19 million	$4.60	19.81

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

Summary

SEI Investments beats Sprott on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sprott

Sprott Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides asset management, portfolio management, wealth management, fund management, and administrative and consulting services to its clients. It offers mutual funds, hedge funds, and offshore funds, along with managed accounts. Further, the firm also provides broker-dealer activities. Sprott Inc. was formed on February 13, 2008 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

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.