Analyzing Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) and Beeline (NASDAQ:BLNE)

Beeline (NASDAQ:BLNE) and Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.6% of Beeline shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.8% of Lazard shares are owned by institutional investors. 33.2% of Beeline shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Lazard shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Beeline and Lazard, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Beeline	1	0	0	1	2.50
Lazard	3	4	4	0	2.09

Lazard has a consensus target price of $57.13, indicating a potential upside of 9.31%. Given Lazard’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Lazard is more favorable than Beeline.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Beeline and Lazard”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Beeline	$3.77 million	22.30	-$11.33 million	($6.73)	-0.45
Lazard	$3.10 billion	1.90	$236.83 million	$2.18	23.97

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

Volatility & Risk

Beeline has a beta of 1.65, indicating that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lazard has a beta of 1.38, indicating that its stock price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Beeline and Lazard’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Beeline	-242.70%	-35.87%	-27.98%
Lazard	7.49%	34.54%	5.98%

Summary

Lazard beats Beeline on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Beeline

Eastside Distilling, Inc. manufactures, acquires, blends, bottles, imports, exports, markets, and sells various alcoholic beverages. It operates through two segments, Spirits and Craft Canning and Bottling. The company provides whiskey under the Burnside Whiskey brand; vodka under the Portland Potato Vodka brand; rum under the Hue-Hue Coffee Rum brand; and tequila under the Azuñia Tequila brand. It also offers gin and ready-to-drink products; and canning and bottling services to the craft beer and cider industries. The company sells its products on a wholesale basis to distributors in the United States. Eastside Distilling, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

About Lazard

Lazard, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial advisory and asset management firm in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. It operates in two segments, Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory segment offers financial advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, shareholder, sovereign, geopolitical advisory, and other strategic advisory services, as well as restructuring and liability management, and capital raising and placement services. This segment offers its services to corporate, partnership, institutional, government, sovereign, and individual clients to various industry areas, including consumers, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, industrials, power and energy/infrastructure, real estate, technology, telecommunication, and media and entertainment. The Asset Management segment offers a range of investment solutions; investment and wealth management services in equity and fixed income strategies; asset allocation strategies; and alternative investments and private equity funds to corporations, public funds, sovereign entities, endowments and foundations, labor funds, financial intermediaries, and private clients. Lazard, Inc. was incorporated in 1848 and is headquartered in New York, New York.