Donnelley Financial Solutions (NYSE:DFIN) vs. Affiliated Managers Group (NYSE:AMG) Head to Head Survey

Affiliated Managers Group (NYSE:AMG) and Donnelley Financial Solutions (NYSE:DFIN) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

95.3% of Affiliated Managers Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of Donnelley Financial Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Affiliated Managers Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.2% of Donnelley Financial Solutions shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Affiliated Managers Group and Donnelley Financial Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Affiliated Managers Group	0	1	6	0	2.86
Donnelley Financial Solutions	0	2	2	1	2.80

Affiliated Managers Group presently has a consensus price target of $388.33, indicating a potential downside of 0.05%. Donnelley Financial Solutions has a consensus price target of $61.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.07%. Given Donnelley Financial Solutions’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Donnelley Financial Solutions is more favorable than Affiliated Managers Group.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Affiliated Managers Group and Donnelley Financial Solutions”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Affiliated Managers Group	$2.07 billion	4.84	$716.60 million	$28.87	13.46
Donnelley Financial Solutions	$777.50 million	1.66	$32.40 million	$1.45	36.24

Affiliated Managers Group has higher revenue and earnings than Donnelley Financial Solutions. Affiliated Managers Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Donnelley Financial Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Affiliated Managers Group has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Donnelley Financial Solutions has a beta of 0.75, meaning that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Affiliated Managers Group and Donnelley Financial Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Affiliated Managers Group	37.72%	21.94%	9.72%
Donnelley Financial Solutions	4.53%	25.82%	12.29%

Summary

Affiliated Managers Group beats Donnelley Financial Solutions on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Affiliated Managers Group

Affiliated Managers Group, Inc., through its affiliates, operates as an investment management company providing investment management services to mutual funds, institutional clients,retails and high net worth individuals in the United States. It provides advisory or sub-advisory services to mutual funds. These funds are distributed to retail, high net worth and institutional clients directly and through intermediaries, including independent investment advisors, retirement plan sponsors, broker-dealers, major fund marketplaces, and bank trust departments. The company also offers investment products in various investment styles in the institutional distribution channel, including small, small/mid, mid, and large capitalization value and growth equity, and emerging markets. In addition, it offers quantitative, alternative, and fixed income products, and manages assets for foundations and endowments, defined benefit, and defined contribution plans for corporations and municipalities. Affiliated Managers Group provides investment management or customized investment counseling and fiduciary services. Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. was formed in 1993 and is based in West Palm Beach, Florida with additional offices in Prides Crossing, Massachusetts; Stamford, Connecticut; London, United Kingdom; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Sydney, Australia; Hong Kong; Tokyo, Japan, Zurich, Switzerland and Delaware.

About Donnelley Financial Solutions

Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. provides innovative software and technology-enabled financial regulatory and compliance solutions in the United States, Asia, Europe, Canada, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Capital Markets Software Solutions (CM-SS); Capital Markets Compliance and Communications Management (CM-CCM); Investment Companies Software Solutions (IC-SS); and Investment Companies Compliance and Communications Management (IC-CCM). The CM-SS segment provides Venue and ActiveDisclosure solutions to public and private companies to manage public and private transactional and compliance processes; collaborate; and tag, validate, and file SEC documents. The CM-CCM segment offers tech-enabled services and print and distribution solutions to public and private companies for deal solutions and SEC compliance requirements. The IC-SS segment provides clients with the Arc Suite platform that contains a comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions, including ArcDigital, ArcReporting, ArcPro, and ArcRegulatory, as well as services that enable storage and management of compliance and regulatory information in a self-service and central repository for accessing, assembling, editing, translating, rendering, and submitting documents to regulators and investors. The IC-CCM segment offers tech-enabled solutions for creating, filing and distributing regulatory communications, and solutions for investor communications, as well as XBRL and iXBRL-formatted filings pursuant for Investment Company Act through the SEC’s EDGAR system. This segment also provides turnkey proxy services, including discovery, planning and implementation, print and mail management, solicitation, tabulation services, stockholder meeting review, and expert support. Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.