Contrasting Value Line (NASDAQ:VALU) & T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW)

Value Line (NASDAQ:VALU) and T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Value Line and T. Rowe Price Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Value Line	58.97%	21.26%	14.60%
T. Rowe Price Group	28.72%	19.77%	15.04%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

6.3% of Value Line shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.4% of T. Rowe Price Group shares are held by institutional investors. 0.0% of Value Line shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of T. Rowe Price Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Value Line has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, T. Rowe Price Group has a beta of 1.47, suggesting that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Value Line and T. Rowe Price Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Value Line	0	0	0	0	0.00
T. Rowe Price Group	4	8	0	0	1.67

T. Rowe Price Group has a consensus target price of $101.0909, suggesting a potential downside of 4.41%. Given T. Rowe Price Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe T. Rowe Price Group is more favorable than Value Line.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Value Line and T. Rowe Price Group”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Value Line	$35.08 million	9.86	$20.69 million	$2.19	16.78
T. Rowe Price Group	$7.09 billion	3.28	$2.10 billion	$8.95	11.82

T. Rowe Price Group has higher revenue and earnings than Value Line. T. Rowe Price Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Value Line, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Value Line pays an annual dividend of $1.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. T. Rowe Price Group pays an annual dividend of $5.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Value Line pays out 59.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. T. Rowe Price Group pays out 56.8% 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. Value Line has raised its dividend for 11 consecutive years and T. Rowe Price Group has raised its dividend for 39 consecutive years. T. Rowe Price Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

T. Rowe Price Group beats Value Line on 12 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Value Line

Value Line, Inc. produces and sells investment periodicals and related publications. Its investment periodicals and related publications cover a range of investments, including stocks, mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs), and options. The company's research services include The Value Line Investment Survey, The Value Line Investment Survey – Small and Mid-Cap, The Value Line 600, and The Value Line Fund Advisor Plus that provide statistical and text coverage of various investment securities, with an emphasis placed on its proprietary research, analysis, and statistical ranks. It also provides niche newsletters comprising Value Line Select: Dividend Income & Growth, Value Line Select: ETFs, The Value Line Special Situations Service, The Value Line M&A Service, The Value Line Climate Change Investing Service, and The Value Line Information You Should Know Wealth Newsletter that offer information on a less comprehensive basis for securities that are of particular interest to subscribers; digital versions of its products through its Website, www.valueline.com; The Value Line Research Center online platform; and investment analysis software, such as The Value Line Investment Analyzer and The New Value Line ETFs Service. In addition, the company offers current and historical financial databases comprising fundamental DataFile, estimates and projections, and mutual funds; and copyright products, which include unit investment trusts, variable annuities, managed accounts, and ETFs. Further, it operates as publishing unit for the investment related periodical publications and copyrights; places advertising on behalf of the company's publications; and distributes print publications. It serves individual and professional investors, as well as institutions, including municipal and university libraries, and investment firms. The company was founded in 1931 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Value Line, Inc. is a subsidiary of Arnold Bernhard & Co., Inc.

About T. Rowe Price Group

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to individuals, institutional investors, retirement plans, financial intermediaries, and institutions. It launches and manages equity and fixed income mutual funds. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a bottom-up approach. The firm utilizes in-house and external research to make its investments. It employs socially responsible investing with a focus on environmental, social, and governance issues. It makes investment in late-stage venture capital transactions and usually invests between $3 million and $5 million. The firm was previously known as T. Rowe Group, Inc. and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland, with additional offices in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Owings Mills, Maryland; San Francisco, California; New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Tampa, Florida; Toronto, Ontario; Hellerup, Denmark; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; Zurich, Switzerland; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; London, United Kingdom; Sydney, New South Wales; Hong Kong; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Frankfurt, Shanghai, China; Germany, Madrid, Spain, Milan, Italy, Stockholm, Sweden, Melbourne, Australia, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Washington, DC.