Financial Contrast: LendingClub (NYSE:LC) & Aiful (OTCMKTS:AIFLY)

Aiful (OTCMKTS:AIFLY) and LendingClub (NYSE:LC) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Aiful and LendingClub”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aiful	N/A	N/A	N/A	$19.42	0.06
LendingClub	$787.01 million	1.80	$51.33 million	$0.44	28.22

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

74.1% of LendingClub shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.3% of LendingClub shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Aiful and LendingClub, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aiful	0	0	0	0	0.00
LendingClub	0	3	7	0	2.70

LendingClub has a consensus target price of $16.13, indicating a potential upside of 29.87%. Given LendingClub’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe LendingClub is more favorable than Aiful.

Profitability

This table compares Aiful and LendingClub’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aiful	N/A	N/A	N/A
LendingClub	6.16%	4.04%	0.52%

Summary

LendingClub beats Aiful on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aiful

Aiful Corporation engages in the consumer finance and credit guarantee business in Japan. The company offers unsecured and small business loans; and credit card, prepaid card, credit guarantee, debt collection, venture capital, receiving agent, corporate turnaround and restructuring, warehouse, document management, and leasing services, as well as used car and medical loans. It also provides postpay settlement, factoring, and installment credit sales services. The company was formerly known as Marutaka, Inc. and changed its name to Aiful Corporation in May 1982. Aiful Corporation was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.

About LendingClub

LendingClub Corporation, operates as a bank holding company, that provides range of financial products and services in the United States. It offers deposit products, including savings accounts, checking accounts, and certificates of deposit. The company also provides loan products, such as consumer loans comprising unsecured personal loans, secured auto refinance loans, and patient and education finance loans; and commercial loans, including small business loans. In addition, it operates an online lending marketplace platform. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.