Head-To-Head Review: loanDepot (NYSE:LDI) & Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I (NYSE:SLAC)

loanDepot (NYSE:LDI – Get Rating) and Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I (NYSE:SLAC – Get Rating) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for loanDepot and Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
loanDepot	1	6	0	0	1.86
Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I	0	0	0	0	N/A

loanDepot presently has a consensus target price of $1.83, indicating a potential downside of 5.01%. Given loanDepot’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe loanDepot is more favorable than Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares loanDepot and Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
loanDepot	$3.72 billion	0.16	$113.52 million	($1.23)	-1.57
Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I	N/A	N/A	$2.54 million	N/A	N/A

loanDepot has higher revenue and earnings than Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I.

Profitability

This table compares loanDepot and Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
loanDepot	-10.45%	-24.85%	-3.46%
Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I	N/A	-30.17%	1.68%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

3.5% of loanDepot shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.7% of Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I shares are held by institutional investors. 88.7% of loanDepot shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.0% of Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I shares are held by company 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.

Risk & Volatility

loanDepot has a beta of 2.49, suggesting that its stock price is 149% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I has a beta of 0.02, suggesting that its stock price is 98% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

loanDepot beats Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About loanDepot

(Get Rating)

loanDepot, Inc. engages in originating, financing, selling, and servicing residential mortgage loans in the United States. It offers conventional agency-conforming and prime jumbo, federal assistance residential mortgage, and home equity loans. The company also provides settlement services, which include captive title and escrow business; real estate services that cover captive real estate referral business; and insurance services, including services to homeowners, as well as other consumer insurance policies. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Foothill Ranch, California.

About Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I

(Get Rating)

Social Leverage Acquisition Corp I does not have significant operations. It focuses on effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses in the financial technology, enterprise software, and consumer technology industries. The company was incorporated in 2020 and is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.