SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) and Deutsche Boerse (OTCMKTS:DBOEY) Critical Review

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) and Deutsche Boerse (OTCMKTS:DBOEY) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

70.6% of SEI Investments shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.8% of SEI Investments shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares SEI Investments and Deutsche Boerse’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SEI Investments	28.85%	29.16%	22.68%
Deutsche Boerse	33.04%	20.33%	0.64%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for SEI Investments and Deutsche Boerse, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SEI Investments	0	1	8	0	2.89
Deutsche Boerse	1	2	3	0	2.33

SEI Investments currently has a consensus price target of $123.67, suggesting a potential upside of 17.78%. Given SEI Investments’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe SEI Investments is more favorable than Deutsche Boerse.

Risk and Volatility

SEI Investments has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Deutsche Boerse has a beta of 0.43, indicating that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

SEI Investments pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Deutsche Boerse pays an annual dividend of $0.29 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. SEI Investments pays out 18.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Deutsche Boerse 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. SEI Investments has raised its dividend for 34 consecutive years. SEI Investments is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SEI Investments and Deutsche Boerse”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SEI Investments	$2.45 billion	5.14	$715.30 million	$5.67	18.52
Deutsche Boerse	$6.82 billion	8.78	$2.26 billion	$1.36	24.41

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

Summary

SEI Investments beats Deutsche Boerse on 12 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Deutsche Boerse

Deutsche Börse AG operates as an exchange organization in Europe, America, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates through four segments: Data & Analytics; Trading & Clearing; Fund Services; and Securities Services. It engages in the trading of derivatives, electricity and gas products, emission rights, foreign exchange, and commodity products; operating EEX and 360T over the counter trading platform for financial instruments, such as foreign exchange, money market, and interest rate products; and operating as a central counterparty. The company also operates in the cash market through Xetra, Börse Frankfurt, and Tradegate trading venues; Qontigo, an integrated suite of front-to-back investment management solution; and a central counterparty for equities and bonds, as well as provides pre-ipo and listing services. In addition, it offers custody and settlement services for securities; investment fund services; connectivity services; and global securities funding and financing, and collateral and liquidity management, as well as secured money, market transaction, and repos and securities lending transaction services. Further, the company provides order routing, settlement, asset management, and custody; investment distribution and placement; infrastructure and post-trading; index, analytics, and risk; securities transactions settlement; securities custody and administration; and market data and analytics services. Additionally, it operates third clearing house Nodal Clear; and specialized software as a service platform for trading participants and digital business platform, as well as offers information technology solutions, including financial market, commodities market, and network connectivity solutions under the Deutsche Börse and 7 Market Technology brands. The company was founded in 1585 and is headquartered in Eschborn, Germany.