MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) versus Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) Head to Head Analysis

Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) and MFA Financial (NYSE:MFA) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

41.4% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.3% of MFA Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of MFA Financial shares are held by insiders. 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Altisource Portfolio Solutions and MFA Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	$160.13 million	0.37	-$35.64 million	($1.94)	-2.77
MFA Financial	$723.97 million	1.36	$119.25 million	$0.85	11.29

MFA Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Altisource Portfolio Solutions. Altisource Portfolio Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MFA Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Altisource Portfolio Solutions has a beta of 0.16, meaning that its stock price is 84% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MFA Financial has a beta of 1.59, meaning that its stock price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Altisource Portfolio Solutions and MFA Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	1	0	0	0	1.00
MFA Financial	0	4	2	0	2.33

MFA Financial has a consensus target price of $10.31, suggesting a potential upside of 7.42%. Given MFA Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe MFA Financial is more favorable than Altisource Portfolio Solutions.

Profitability

This table compares Altisource Portfolio Solutions and MFA Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	0.04%	N/A	-3.73%
MFA Financial	17.51%	7.26%	1.14%

Summary

MFA Financial beats Altisource Portfolio Solutions on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Altisource Portfolio Solutions

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. operates as an integrated service provider and marketplace for the real estate and mortgage industries in the United States and internationally. It operates through Servicer and Real Estate, and Origination segments. The Servicer and Real Estate segment offers property preservation, inspection, title insurance and settlement, real estate valuation, foreclosure trustee, and residential and commercial construction inspection and risk mitigation services. This segment provides Hubzu, an online real estate auction platform, as well as real estate auction, real estate brokerage, and asset management services; Equator, a software-as-a-service technology to manage real estate owned, short sales, foreclosure, bankruptcy, and eviction processes; a vendor invoicing and payment system; RentRange, a single and multi-family rental data, analytics, and rent-based valuation solution; REALSynergy, a commercial loan servicing platform; and NestRange, an automated residential valuation model and analytics solution. The Origination segment offers loan fulfillment, certification and certification insurance services, management services. In addition, it provides Lendors One Loan Automation, a marketplace to order services and a tool to automate components of the loan manufacturing process; TrelixAI, a technology to manage the workflow and automate components of the loan fulfillment, pre and post close quality, and service transfer processes; and ADMS, a document management and data analytics delivery platform. The company serves financial institutions, government-sponsored enterprises, banks, asset managers, servicers, investors, property management firms, real estate brokerages, insurance companies, mortgage bankers, originators, and correspondent and private money lenders. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

About MFA Financial

MFA Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a real estate investment trust in the United States. It invests in residential mortgage securities, including non-agency mortgage-backed securities, agency MBS, and credit risk transfer securities; residential whole loans, including purchased performing loans, purchased credit deteriorated, and non-performing loans; and mortgage servicing rights related assets. The company was incorporated in 1997 and is based in New York, New York.