Head-To-Head Contrast: Pearl Diver Credit (NYSE:PDCC) vs. American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Pearl Diver Credit (NYSE:PDCC) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Risk & Volatility

Pearl Diver Credit has a beta of 0.3, suggesting that its stock price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Express has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Pearl Diver Credit and American Express”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pearl Diver Credit	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
American Express	$70.43 billion	3.53	$10.13 billion	$14.90	24.21

American Express has higher revenue and earnings than Pearl Diver Credit.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Pearl Diver Credit and American Express, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pearl Diver Credit	0	0	0	1	4.00
American Express	1	14	9	0	2.33

Pearl Diver Credit currently has a consensus target price of $19.50, indicating a potential upside of 18.97%. American Express has a consensus target price of $332.65, indicating a potential downside of 7.78%. Given Pearl Diver Credit’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Pearl Diver Credit is more favorable than American Express.

Dividends

Pearl Diver Credit pays an annual dividend of $2.64 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.1%. American Express pays an annual dividend of $3.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. American Express pays out 22.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Express has raised its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.3% of American Express shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of American Express shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Pearl Diver Credit and American Express’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pearl Diver Credit	N/A	N/A	N/A
American Express	14.97%	33.41%	3.68%

Summary

American Express beats Pearl Diver Credit on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pearl Diver Credit

Pearl Diver Credit Company Inc. is a newly organized, externally managed, non-diversified, closed-end management investment company. Its primary investment objective is to maximize its portfolio’s total return, with a secondary objective of generating high current income. Pearl Diver Credit Company Inc. is based in NEW YORK.

About American Express

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated payments company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. The company’s products and services include credit card, charge card, banking, and other payment and financing products; network services; expense management products and services; and travel and lifestyle services. It also provides merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, point-of-sale marketing, and information products and services for merchants; and fraud prevention services, as well as the design and operation of customer loyalty programs. In addition, the company operates lounges at airports under Centurion Lounge brand name. It sells its products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations through mobile and online applications, affiliate marketing, customer referral programs, third-party service providers and business partners, direct mail, telephone, in-house sales teams, and direct response advertising. American Express Company was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York.