Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) versus MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Critical Survey

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) and Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.0% of MSCI shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 72.8% of Piper Sandler Companies shares are held by institutional investors. 3.8% of MSCI shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of Piper Sandler Companies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

MSCI pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Piper Sandler Companies pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. MSCI pays out 44.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Piper Sandler Companies pays out 18.5% 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. MSCI has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years and Piper Sandler Companies has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. MSCI is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for MSCI and Piper Sandler Companies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSCI	0	0	11	1	3.08
Piper Sandler Companies	1	2	3	0	2.33

MSCI presently has a consensus price target of $709.50, suggesting a potential upside of 30.68%. Piper Sandler Companies has a consensus price target of $95.06, suggesting a potential upside of 32.74%. Given Piper Sandler Companies’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Piper Sandler Companies is more favorable than MSCI.

Risk and Volatility

MSCI has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Piper Sandler Companies has a beta of 1.4, suggesting that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares MSCI and Piper Sandler Companies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSCI	$3.13 billion	12.59	$1.20 billion	$18.28	29.70
Piper Sandler Companies	$1.90 billion	2.66	$281.33 million	$4.32	16.58

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

Profitability

This table compares MSCI and Piper Sandler Companies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSCI	40.74%	-55.19%	24.90%
Piper Sandler Companies	14.51%	21.92%	14.60%

Summary

MSCI beats Piper Sandler Companies on 14 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, application, an integrated view of risk and return service, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, counterparty, and climate risk across asset classes; managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The ESG and Climate segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG impacts the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and data, ratings, research, and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation. The All Other Private Assets segment includes real estate and infrastructure data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights; business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers; and offers investment decision support tools for private capital. The Private Capital Solutions segment offers tools to help private asset investors across mission-critical workflows, such as sourcing terms and conditions, evaluating operating performance, managing risk and other activities supporting private capital investing. MSCI Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Piper Sandler Companies

Piper Sandler Companies operates as an investment bank and institutional securities firm that serves corporations, private equity groups, public entities, non-profit entities, and institutional investors in the United States and internationally. The company offers investment banking and institutional sales, trading, and research services for various equity and fixed income products. It provides advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, equity private placements, and debt and restructuring advisory; raises capital through equity and debt financings; underwrites municipal issuances; and offers municipal financial advisory and loan placement services, as well as various over-the-counter derivative products. The company also offers public finance investment banking services that focus on state and local governments, and cultural and social service non-profit entities, as well as the education, healthcare, hospitality, senior living, and transportation sectors. In addition, it provides equity and fixed income advisory and trade execution services for institutional investors, and government and non-profit entities. Further, the company is involved in the alternative asset management funds merchant banking and healthcare to invest firm capital and to manage capital from outside investors, as well as trading activities. The company was formerly known as Piper Jaffray Companies and changed its name to Piper Sandler Companies in January 2020. Piper Sandler Companies was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.