Contrasting Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) and Sound Point Meridian Capital (NYSE:SPMC)

Ameriprise Financial (NYSE:AMP) and Sound Point Meridian Capital (NYSE:SPMC) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Ameriprise Financial has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sound Point Meridian Capital has a beta of 0.22, suggesting that its share price is 78% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.0% of Ameriprise Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Ameriprise Financial shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Ameriprise Financial and Sound Point Meridian Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ameriprise Financial	18.30%	65.90%	2.02%
Sound Point Meridian Capital	N/A	N/A	N/A

Dividends

Ameriprise Financial pays an annual dividend of $6.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Sound Point Meridian Capital pays an annual dividend of $3.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 18.0%. Ameriprise Financial pays out 19.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sound Point Meridian Capital pays out 211.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ameriprise Financial has raised its dividend for 21 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Ameriprise Financial and Sound Point Meridian Capital, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ameriprise Financial	2	5	2	1	2.20
Sound Point Meridian Capital	0	1	1	1	3.00

Ameriprise Financial currently has a consensus target price of $539.50, indicating a potential upside of 11.30%. Sound Point Meridian Capital has a consensus target price of $20.00, indicating a potential upside of 20.08%. Given Sound Point Meridian Capital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Sound Point Meridian Capital is more favorable than Ameriprise Financial.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Ameriprise Financial and Sound Point Meridian Capital”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ameriprise Financial	$17.26 billion	2.65	$3.40 billion	$32.14	15.08
Sound Point Meridian Capital	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.42	11.73

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

Summary

Ameriprise Financial beats Sound Point Meridian Capital on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ameriprise Financial

Ameriprise Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides various financial products and services to individual and institutional clients in the United States and internationally. It operates through four segments: Advice & Wealth Management, Asset Management, Retirement & Protection Solutions, and Corporate & Other. The Advice & Wealth Management segment provides financial planning and advice; brokerage products and services for retail and institutional clients; discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory accounts; mutual funds; insurance and annuities products; cash management and banking products; and face-amount certificates. The Asset Management segment offers investment management, advice, and products to retail, high net worth, and institutional clients through third-party financial institutions, advisor networks, direct retail, and its institutional sales force under the Columbia Threadneedle Investments brand name. This segment products include U.S. mutual funds and their non-U.S. equivalents, exchange-traded funds, variable product funds underlying insurance, and annuity separate accounts; and institutional asset management products, such as traditional asset classes, separately managed accounts, individually managed accounts, collateralized loan obligations, hedge funds, collective funds, and property and infrastructure funds. The Retirement & Protection Solutions segment provides variable annuity products, as well as life and disability income insurance products to retail clients. The company was formerly known as American Express Financial Corporation and changed its name to Ameriprise Financial, Inc. in September 2005. Ameriprise Financial, Inc. was founded in 1894 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About Sound Point Meridian Capital

Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc. is an externally managed, non-diversified closed-end management investment company. Its investment objective is to generate high current income, with a secondary objective to generate capital appreciation, by investing primarily in third-party collateralized loan obligation equity and mezzanine tranches. Sound Point Meridian Capital Inc. is based in NEW YORK.