Analyzing CI Financial (NYSE:CIXXF) and AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB)

CI Financial (NYSE:CIXXF) and AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Dividends

CI Financial pays an annual dividend of $0.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.6%. AllianceBernstein pays an annual dividend of $3.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.6%. CI Financial pays out -169.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AllianceBernstein pays out 88.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for CI Financial and AllianceBernstein, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CI Financial	2	1	0	0	1.33
AllianceBernstein	0	1	4	0	2.80

AllianceBernstein has a consensus price target of $42.40, indicating a potential upside of 17.79%. Given AllianceBernstein’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe AllianceBernstein is more favorable than CI Financial.

Risk and Volatility

CI Financial has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AllianceBernstein has a beta of 1.21, suggesting that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares CI Financial and AllianceBernstein’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CI Financial	-2.28%	57.73%	5.23%
AllianceBernstein	9.22%	16.23%	16.22%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

19.3% of AllianceBernstein shares are held by institutional investors. 2.7% of AllianceBernstein shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CI Financial and AllianceBernstein”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CI Financial	$2.03 billion	1.54	$3.72 million	($0.33)	-66.00
AllianceBernstein	$4.16 billion	1.00	$264.18 million	$3.49	10.31

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

Summary

AllianceBernstein beats CI Financial on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CI Financial

CI Financial Corp. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm manages separate client focused equity, fixed income, and alternative investments portfolios. It also manages mutual funds, hedge funds, and fund of funds for its clients through its subsidiaries. The firm was founded in 1965 and is based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices in Vancouver, Canada; Calgary, Canada; and Montreal, Canada.

About AllianceBernstein

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm is a related adviser The firm manages separate client focused portfolios for its clients. The firm primarily invests in common and preferred stocks, warrants and convertible securities, government and corporate fxed-income securities, commodities, currencies, real estate-related assets and infation-protected securities. The firm employs quantitative analysis along with long-term purchases, short-term purchases, trading, short sales, margin transactions, option strategies including writing covered options, uncovered options and spread strategies to make its investments. The firm obtains external research to complement its in-house research. The firm was formerly known as Alliance Capital Management Holding LP. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. was founded in 1967 and is based in Nashville,Tennessee.