Head to Head Survey: Monex Group (OTCMKTS:MNXBF) versus Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR)

Monex Group (OTCMKTS:MNXBF) and Laureate Education (NASDAQ:LAUR) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

9.7% of Monex Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.3% of Laureate Education shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Laureate Education shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Monex Group and Laureate Education, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Monex Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
Laureate Education	1	2	4	0	2.43

Laureate Education has a consensus price target of $40.50, indicating a potential upside of 8.70%. Given Laureate Education’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Laureate Education is more favorable than Monex Group.

Profitability

This table compares Monex Group and Laureate Education’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Monex Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Laureate Education	17.57%	23.54%	11.72%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Monex Group and Laureate Education”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Monex Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	$11.59	0.36
Laureate Education	$1.83 billion	2.80	$281.63 million	$2.23	16.71

Laureate Education has higher revenue and earnings than Monex Group. Monex Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Laureate Education, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Monex Group pays an annual dividend of $6.53 per share and has a dividend yield of 157.0%. Laureate Education pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Monex Group pays out 56.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Laureate Education pays out 30.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Summary

Laureate Education beats Monex Group on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Monex Group

Monex Group, Inc., an online financial institution, provides retail online brokerage services in Japan, the United States, China, and Australia. It offers international forex, asset management, investor education, M&A advisory, and cryptocurrency exchange services; investment and trading, and investment education services; asset building and management services; custodial trust service; private banking services for high net worth clients; investment advisory services; management and utilization services for genomic, medical, and healthcare data; and education and childcare services. In addition, it involved in development and operation of marketing SaaS ChatBook'; research and design, study, development, and consultation on cryptocurrency; and development of trading technology. The company was formerly known as Monex Beans Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Monex Group, Inc. in July 2008. Monex Group, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About Laureate Education

Laureate Education, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, offers higher education programs and services to students through a network of universities and higher education institutions. The company provides a range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the areas of business and management, medicine and health sciences, and engineering and information technology through campus-based, online, and hybrid programs. It also offers specialized courses for technical and vocational training; and senior high school. Its services are provides in Mexico, Peru, and the United States. The company was formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Laureate Education, Inc. in May 2004. Laureate Education, Inc. was founded in 1989 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida.