American Express (NYSE:AXP) & Jernigan Capital (NASDAQ:JCAP) Head-To-Head Review

Jernigan Capital (NASDAQ:JCAP) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings and dividends.

Risk & Volatility

Jernigan Capital has a beta of -0.02, indicating that its stock price is 102% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Express has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Jernigan Capital and American Express”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Jernigan Capital	$613.29 million	1.79	$187.96 million	$2.45	7.81
American Express	$72.23 billion	2.82	$10.83 billion	$16.48	18.32

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

Dividends

Jernigan Capital pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. American Express pays an annual dividend of $3.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Jernigan Capital pays out 39.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Express pays out 23.1% 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. American Express has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.3% of American Express shares are held by institutional investors. 8.3% of Jernigan Capital shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of American Express shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Jernigan Capital and American Express’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Jernigan Capital	23.50%	35.87%	8.16%
American Express	15.07%	34.12%	3.77%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Jernigan Capital and American Express, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Jernigan Capital	1	1	4	1	2.71
American Express	1	16	12	1	2.43

Jernigan Capital currently has a consensus target price of $27.50, indicating a potential upside of 43.68%. American Express has a consensus target price of $366.96, indicating a potential upside of 21.52%. Given Jernigan Capital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Jernigan Capital is more favorable than American Express.

Summary

American Express beats Jernigan Capital on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Jernigan Capital

Jernigan Capital is a New York Stock Exchange-listed real estate investment trust (NYSE: JCAP) that provides debt and equity capital to private developers, owners and operators of self-storage facilities with a view to eventual outright ownership of facilities the Company finances. The Company's mission is to maximize shareholder value by accumulating a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio consisting of the newest, most attractive and best located self-storage facilities in the United States through a talented and experienced team demonstrating the highest levels of integrity, dedication, excellence and community.

About American Express

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated payments company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. The company’s products and services include credit card, charge card, banking, and other payment and financing products; network services; expense management products and services; and travel and lifestyle services. It also provides merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, point-of-sale marketing, and information products and services for merchants; and fraud prevention services, as well as the design and operation of customer loyalty programs. In addition, the company operates lounges at airports under Centurion Lounge brand name. It sells its products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations through mobile and online applications, affiliate marketing, customer referral programs, third-party service providers and business partners, direct mail, telephone, in-house sales teams, and direct response advertising. American Express Company was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York.