Critical Survey: Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ:HLNE) and MDB Capital (NASDAQ:MDBH)

Hamilton Lane (NASDAQ:HLNE) and MDB Capital (NASDAQ:MDBH) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Hamilton Lane and MDB Capital”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hamilton Lane	$758.99 million	6.07	$249.18 million	$6.56	12.64
MDB Capital	$4.91 million	4.13	-$21.25 million	($2.18)	-0.90

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

97.4% of Hamilton Lane shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.3% of MDB Capital shares are held by institutional investors. 24.0% of Hamilton Lane shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 55.8% of MDB Capital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Hamilton Lane and MDB Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hamilton Lane	32.14%	25.10%	15.75%
MDB Capital	N/A	-39.77%	-38.48%

Risk and Volatility

Hamilton Lane has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MDB Capital has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its stock price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Hamilton Lane and MDB Capital, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hamilton Lane	0	2	7	1	2.90
MDB Capital	1	0	0	0	1.00

Hamilton Lane currently has a consensus target price of $124.62, suggesting a potential upside of 50.30%. Given Hamilton Lane’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Hamilton Lane is more favorable than MDB Capital.

Summary

Hamilton Lane beats MDB Capital on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hamilton Lane

Hamilton Lane Incorporated is a private equity firm specializing in early venture, emerging growth, turnaround, middle market, mature, mid-venture, bridge, buyout, distressed/vulture, loan, mezzanine in growth capital companies. It prefers to invest in energy, industrials, consumer discretionary, health care, real estate, information technology, utilities, and consumer services. The firm prefers to invest in Africa/Middle East, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, United States of America, and Canada. The firm prefers to invest between $1 million and $100 million. It prefers to take majority stake. Hamilton Lane Incorporated was founded in 1991 and is based in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania with additional offices across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

About MDB Capital

MDB Capital Holdings, LLC, through its subsidiaries, primarily operates as a broker-dealer. The company operates through two segments, Broker Dealer & Intellectual Property Service, and Technology Development. The Broker Dealer & Intellectual Property Service segment operates as a full-service broker dealer that focuses on conducting private and public securities offerings, as well as providing research services for investment banking due diligence. The Technology Development segment engages in the synthetic biology technology development business. The company was founded in 1997 and is based in Addison, Texas.