Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) versus Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) Head to Head Contrast

Franklin Resources (NYSE:BEN) and Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE:JEF) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

47.6% of Franklin Resources shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.9% of Jefferies Financial Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.4% of Franklin Resources shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 19.9% of Jefferies Financial Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Franklin Resources and Jefferies Financial Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Franklin Resources	2	6	4	0	2.17
Jefferies Financial Group	0	5	2	0	2.29

Franklin Resources currently has a consensus price target of $33.10, indicating a potential upside of 0.21%. Jefferies Financial Group has a consensus price target of $62.75, indicating a potential upside of 31.72%. Given Jefferies Financial Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Jefferies Financial Group is more favorable than Franklin Resources.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Franklin Resources and Jefferies Financial Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Franklin Resources	$9.32 billion	1.80	$524.90 million	$1.47	22.47
Jefferies Financial Group	$11.85 billion	0.78	$710.47 million	$3.58	13.31

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

Dividends

Franklin Resources pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. Jefferies Financial Group pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Franklin Resources pays out 89.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Jefferies Financial Group pays out 44.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Franklin Resources has increased its dividend for 45 consecutive years and Jefferies Financial Group has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Franklin Resources is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Franklin Resources and Jefferies Financial Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Franklin Resources	8.72%	11.55%	4.46%
Jefferies Financial Group	7.58%	9.23%	1.31%

Risk and Volatility

Franklin Resources has a beta of 1.54, suggesting that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Jefferies Financial Group has a beta of 1.52, suggesting that its share price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Franklin Resources beats Jefferies Financial Group on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Franklin Resources

Franklin Resources, Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides its services to individuals, institutions, pension plans, trusts, and partnerships. It launches equity, fixed income, balanced, and multi-asset mutual funds through its subsidiaries. The firm invests in the public equity, fixed income, and alternative markets. Franklin Resources, Inc. was founded in 1947 and is based in San Mateo, California with an additional office in Calgary, Canada; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Edinburgh, United Kingdom; Fort Lauderdale, United States; Hyderabad, India; London, United Kingdom; Rancho Cordova, United states; Shanghai, China; Singapore; Stamford, United States; and Vienna, Austria.

About Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. operates as an investment banking and capital markets firm in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Investment Banking and Capital Markets, and Asset Management. It provides investment banking, advisory services with respect to mergers or acquisitions, debt financing, restructurings or recapitalizations, and private capital advisory transactions; underwriting and placement services related to corporate debt, municipal bonds, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, equity and equity-linked securities, and loan syndication services; and corporate lending services. The company also offers financing, securities lending, and other prime brokerage services; equities research, sales, and trading services; wealth management services; and online foreign exchange trading services. In addition, it provides investment grade distressed debt securities, U.S. and European government and agency securities, municipal bonds, leveraged loans, emerging markets debt, and interest rate and credit index derivative products; and manages and offers services to a diverse group of alternative asset management platforms across a spectrum of investment strategies and asset classes. The company was formerly known as Leucadia National Corporation and changed its name to Jefferies Financial Group Inc. in May 2018. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in New York, New York.