Reviewing SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) & AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB)

SEI Investments (NASDAQ:SEIC) and AllianceBernstein (NYSE:AB) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, valuation and earnings.

Volatility & Risk

SEI Investments has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AllianceBernstein has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

70.6% of SEI Investments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.3% of AllianceBernstein shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.6% of SEI Investments shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of AllianceBernstein shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for SEI Investments and AllianceBernstein, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SEI Investments	0	3	4	1	2.75
AllianceBernstein	1	7	1	0	2.00

SEI Investments currently has a consensus target price of $104.40, indicating a potential upside of 27.46%. AllianceBernstein has a consensus target price of $41.50, indicating a potential upside of 4.90%. Given SEI Investments’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe SEI Investments is more favorable than AllianceBernstein.

Profitability

This table compares SEI Investments and AllianceBernstein’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SEI Investments	31.09%	30.21%	26.06%
AllianceBernstein	7.09%	18.44%	18.43%

Dividends

SEI Investments pays an annual dividend of $0.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. AllianceBernstein pays an annual dividend of $3.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.7%. SEI Investments pays out 18.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. AllianceBernstein pays out 100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. SEI Investments has increased its dividend for 34 consecutive years.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares SEI Investments and AllianceBernstein”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SEI Investments	$2.13 billion	4.76	$581.19 million	$5.44	15.06
AllianceBernstein	$4.48 billion	0.98	$423.37 million	$3.04	13.01

SEI Investments has higher earnings, but lower revenue than AllianceBernstein. AllianceBernstein is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SEI Investments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

SEI Investments beats AllianceBernstein on 16 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SEI Investments

SEI Investments Company is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides wealth management, retirement and investment solutions, asset management, asset administration, investment processing outsourcing solutions, financial services, and investment advisory services to its clients. It provides its services to private banks, independent financial advisers, institutional investors, investment managers, investment advisors, wealth management organizations, corporations, retirement scheme sponsors, not-for-profit organizations, hedge fund managers, registered investment advisers, independent broker-dealers, financial planners, life insurance agents, defined-benefit schemes, defined-contribution schemes, endowments, foundations, and board-designated fund, through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm manages separate client-focused portfolios. It also launches and manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds, through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm invests in public equity and fixed income markets. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a focus on top-down and bottom-up analysis to make its investments, through its subsidiaries. SEI Investments Company was founded in 1968 and is based in Oaks, Pennsylvania.

About AllianceBernstein

AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm is a related adviser The firm manages separate client focused portfolios for its clients. The firm primarily invests in common and preferred stocks, warrants and convertible securities, government and corporate fxed-income securities, commodities, currencies, real estate-related assets and infation-protected securities. The firm employs quantitative analysis along with long-term purchases, short-term purchases, trading, short sales, margin transactions, option strategies including writing covered options, uncovered options and spread strategies to make its investments. The firm obtains external research to complement its in-house research. The firm was formerly known as Alliance Capital Management Holding LP. AllianceBernstein Holding L.P. was founded in 1967 and is based in Nashville,Tennessee.