Head-To-Head Contrast: Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (NYSE:AVAL) & MSCI (NYSE:MSCI)

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (NYSE:AVAL) and MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Dividends

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores pays an annual dividend of $0.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. MSCI pays an annual dividend of $7.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores pays out 33.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MSCI pays out 45.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. MSCI has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores and MSCI”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	$9.07 billion	0.61	$203.02 million	$0.33	14.12
MSCI	$3.13 billion	13.43	$1.20 billion	$15.69	35.70

MSCI has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MSCI, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores and MSCI, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	0	2	0	0	2.00
MSCI	0	3	8	0	2.73

MSCI has a consensus target price of $659.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.66%. Given MSCI’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe MSCI is more favorable than Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.2% of Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.0% of MSCI shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of MSCI shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores has a beta of 0.64, indicating that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSCI has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores and MSCI’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	4.61%	5.95%	0.60%
MSCI	38.36%	-82.59%	24.29%

Summary

MSCI beats Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A. provides a range of financial services and products to public and private sector customers in Colombia and Central America. It offers traditional deposit services and products, including checking accounts, savings accounts, time deposits, and other deposits. The company also provides commercial loans comprising general purpose loans, working capital loans, leases, loans funded by development banks, corporate credit cards, and overdraft loans; consumer loans, such as payroll loans, personal loans, automobile and other vehicle loans, credit cards, overdrafts, leases, and general purpose loans; and microcredit and mortgage loans. In addition, the company offers pension and severance fund management services; investment banking, including services relating to capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and project finance transactions; mobile and online banking services; and bancassurance, insurance, trust, bonded warehousing and brokerage transactions, real estate escrow services, merchandise and document storage and deposit, customs agency, cargo management, surety bond and merchandise distribution services, and payment and collection services. Further, it is involved in equity investments in various sectors, including infrastructure, energy and gas, agribusiness, and hospitality; and treasury operations. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, application, an integrated view of risk and return service, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, counterparty, and climate risk across asset classes; managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The ESG and Climate segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG impacts the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and data, ratings, research, and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation. The All Other Private Assets segment includes real estate and infrastructure data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights; business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers; and offers investment decision support tools for private capital. The Private Capital Solutions segment offers tools to help private asset investors across mission-critical workflows, such as sourcing terms and conditions, evaluating operating performance, managing risk and other activities supporting private capital investing. MSCI Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.