Analyzing Mentor Capital (OTCMKTS:MNTR) & Lazard (NYSE:LAZ)

Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) and Mentor Capital (OTCMKTS:MNTR) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Lazard has a beta of 1.44, meaning that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mentor Capital has a beta of -0.77, meaning that its share price is 177% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

54.8% of Lazard shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Lazard shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 23.7% of Mentor Capital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lazard and Mentor Capital”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lazard	$3.10 billion	1.70	$236.83 million	$2.53	18.66
Mentor Capital	$170,000.00	6.44	-$570,000.00	($0.03)	-1.68

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

Profitability

This table compares Lazard and Mentor Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lazard	8.47%	29.30%	5.52%
Mentor Capital	-261.84%	-23.05%	-18.62%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Lazard and Mentor Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lazard	3	5	4	0	2.08
Mentor Capital	0	0	0	0	0.00

Lazard currently has a consensus price target of $52.56, suggesting a potential upside of 11.33%. Given Lazard’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Lazard is more favorable than Mentor Capital.

Summary

Lazard beats Mentor Capital on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lazard

Lazard, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial advisory and asset management firm in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. It operates in two segments, Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory segment offers financial advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, shareholder, sovereign, geopolitical advisory, and other strategic advisory services, as well as restructuring and liability management, and capital raising and placement services. This segment offers its services to corporate, partnership, institutional, government, sovereign, and individual clients to various industry areas, including consumers, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, industrials, power and energy/infrastructure, real estate, technology, telecommunication, and media and entertainment. The Asset Management segment offers a range of investment solutions; investment and wealth management services in equity and fixed income strategies; asset allocation strategies; and alternative investments and private equity funds to corporations, public funds, sovereign entities, endowments and foundations, labor funds, financial intermediaries, and private clients. Lazard, Inc. was incorporated in 1848 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Mentor Capital

Mentor Capital, Inc. is a private equity firm specializing in acquisitions and emerging growth investments. The firm provides passive equity funding and liquidity to smaller companies and owners in the medical, marijuana and social use cannabis companies. It invests in shelf IPO’s and public and private companies and seeks to provide public market access to owners of small private companies. The firm specializes in pre-IPO investments in Cannabis companies. It seeks to invest in energy sector of oil and gas, coal, uranium. In case of shelf IPO’s, the firm prefers to invest in companies with sales greater than $40 million. It prefers to take significant position in its portfolio companies. The firm invests only in companies that have earnings. Mentor Capital, Inc. was founded in 1985 and is based in Plano, Texas.