Contrasting Loomis (OTCMKTS:LOIMF) and Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR)

Loomis (OTCMKTS:LOIMF) and Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Loomis and Burford Capital, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Loomis	0	1	0	0	2.00
Burford Capital	1	3	2	0	2.17

Burford Capital has a consensus price target of $8.88, suggesting a potential upside of 113.80%. Given Burford Capital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Burford Capital is more favorable than Loomis.

Volatility & Risk

Loomis has a beta of -0.83, suggesting that its stock price is 183% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Burford Capital has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Loomis and Burford Capital”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Loomis	$3.11 billion	1.02	$161.68 million	$2.96	16.05
Burford Capital	$413.36 million	2.21	$62.57 million	($7.71)	-0.54

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

Profitability

This table compares Loomis and Burford Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Loomis	6.46%	16.24%	5.31%
Burford Capital	N/A	10.24%	4.35%

Summary

Loomis beats Burford Capital on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Loomis

Loomis AB (publ) provides solutions for the distribution, payments, handling, storage, and recycling of cash and other valuables. The company offers a range of solutions for cash in transit, cash management services, foreign exchange services, automated teller machines, automated solutions, and international valuables logistics, as well as operates Loomis Pay, a payment service that enables processing of various types of payment methods, such as card, cash, and digital alternatives. It serves financial institutions, banks, retailers, commercial enterprises, and other customers, as well as public sector in Sweden, the United States, France, Switzerland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and internationally. Loomis AB (publ) was founded in 1852 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

About Burford Capital

Burford Capital Limited provides legal finance products and services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Capital Provision, and Asset Management and Other Provision. The Capital Provision segment provides capital to the legal industry or in connection with legal matters directly and through investment in private funds; legal risk management services; lower risk legal finance business focusing on pre-settlement litigation matters with lower risk and lower expected returns; post-settlement finance; and complex strategies in which it acts as a principal and acquires assets that are mispriced. The Asset Management and Other Services segment provides services to the legal industry, including litigation insurance. Burford Capital Limited was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey.