Comparing Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) and FX Alliance (OTCMKTS:FXAI)

Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) and FX Alliance (OTCMKTS:FXAI) are both financial services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Piper Sandler Companies and FX Alliance’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Piper Sandler Companies	13.73%	19.91%	13.64%
FX Alliance	N/A	N/A	N/A

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Piper Sandler Companies and FX Alliance”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Piper Sandler Companies	$1.53 billion	3.88	$181.11 million	$13.27	25.24
FX Alliance	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Piper Sandler Companies has higher revenue and earnings than FX Alliance.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

72.8% of Piper Sandler Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Piper Sandler Companies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Piper Sandler Companies and FX Alliance, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Piper Sandler Companies	1	3	2	0	2.17
FX Alliance	0	0	0	0	0.00

Piper Sandler Companies presently has a consensus price target of $389.67, suggesting a potential upside of 16.34%. Given Piper Sandler Companies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Piper Sandler Companies is more favorable than FX Alliance.

Summary

Piper Sandler Companies beats FX Alliance on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Piper Sandler Companies

Piper Sandler Companies operates as an investment bank and institutional securities firm that serves corporations, private equity groups, public entities, non-profit entities, and institutional investors in the United States and internationally. The company offers investment banking and institutional sales, trading, and research services for various equity and fixed income products. It provides advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, equity private placements, and debt and restructuring advisory; raises capital through equity and debt financings; underwrites municipal issuances; and offers municipal financial advisory and loan placement services, as well as various over-the-counter derivative products. The company also offers public finance investment banking services that focus on state and local governments, and cultural and social service non-profit entities, as well as the education, healthcare, hospitality, senior living, and transportation sectors. In addition, it provides equity and fixed income advisory and trade execution services for institutional investors, and government and non-profit entities. Further, the company is involved in the alternative asset management funds merchant banking and healthcare to invest firm capital and to manage capital from outside investors, as well as trading activities. The company was formerly known as Piper Jaffray Companies and changed its name to Piper Sandler Companies in January 2020. Piper Sandler Companies was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About FX Alliance

FX Alliance Inc. (FX Alliance) is a provider of electronic foreign exchange trading solutions, with over 1,000 institutional clients worldwide. The Company provides institutional clients with around-the-clock direct access, five days per week, to the foreign exchange (FX) market. The Company’s technology platform enables it to deliver FX price discovery, trade execution and automation of pre-trade and post-trade transaction workflow. Its suite of electronic FX trading products, including FX spot, FX forwards, FX swaps and non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) are used by asset managers, banks, broker-dealers, corporations, hedge funds, prime brokers and other institutions worldwide. FX Alliance’s platform supports the over-the-counter (OTC), trading of gold and silver on a spot, forward or swap basis and provides access to bank deposits.