Financial Contrast: UniCredit (OTCMKTS:UNCFF) & ITOCHU (OTCMKTS:ITOCY)

UniCredit (OTCMKTS:UNCFF) and ITOCHU (OTCMKTS:ITOCY) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

0.1% of ITOCHU shares are held by institutional investors. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for UniCredit and ITOCHU, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UniCredit	0	0	0	1	4.00
ITOCHU	0	0	0	0	0.00

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares UniCredit and ITOCHU”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
UniCredit	$25.63 billion	4.07	$9.32 billion	N/A	N/A
ITOCHU	$92.66 billion	0.66	$5.30 billion	$7.66	11.16

UniCredit has higher earnings, but lower revenue than ITOCHU.

Risk & Volatility

UniCredit has a beta of 0.86, suggesting that its share price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ITOCHU has a beta of 0.73, suggesting that its share price is 27% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares UniCredit and ITOCHU’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UniCredit	N/A	N/A	N/A
ITOCHU	5.93%	13.97%	5.84%

About UniCredit

UniCredit S.p.A. provides commercial banking services in Italy, Germany, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe. It offers retail, private, and wealth management solutions; and institutional investor solutions. The company also provides corporate finance advisory, rating advisory, financial sponsor, patient capital, capital structure advisory, and finance solutions, as well as securities services. In addition, it offers transactional and risk management, and strategic advisory and funding services; group trade and correspondent banking services; and payments and cash management solutions. The company serves SME, corporate, multinational corporate, financial institution, and public sector clients, as well as retail, private banking, wealth management, and family office clients. The company was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Milan, Italy.

About ITOCHU

ITOCHU Corporation engages in trading and importing/exporting various products worldwide. The company’s Textile segment produces and sells raw materials, threads, and textiles; and garments, home furnishings, and industrial materials, as well as trades in industrial textile and lifestyle products. Its Machinery segment engages in the plants, bridges, railways, and other infrastructure; power generation, transmission, transformation, and sale; water, environment and waste-related; ship trading; renewable and alternative energy; and waste recycling businesses. The company’s Metals & Minerals segment engages in development of metal and mineral resource; processing and steel products; trading of iron ore, coal, pig iron and ferrous raw materials, non-ferrous and light metals, steel products, nuclear fuels, and greenhouse gas emissions; and recycling and waste treatment activities. Its Energy & Chemicals segment trades in crude oil, petroleum products, LPG, LNG, natural gas, hydrogen, organic and inorganic chemicals, functional food, synthetic resins, packaging materials, household goods, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and electronic materials, as well as engages in the solar and biomass power generation, electricity trading, and the energy storage cell businesses. The company’s Food segment produces, distributes, and retails food products. Its General Products & Realty segment produces and sells paper, pulp, natural rubber, tire, and wood products and materials; develops and operates real estate properties, such as housing, logistics facilities, and other projects; and offers logistics services. The company’s ICT & Financial Business segment offers IT, Internet related and venture capital, mobile telephone equipment, BPO, broadcasting and communications, entertainment and content, healthcare and preventive medicine outsourcing, and financial and insurance brokerage services. The company was founded in 1858 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.