Financial Contrast: Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ (OTCMKTS:SVNLY) and Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG)

Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE:LYG) and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ (OTCMKTS:SVNLY) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and dividends.

Dividends

Lloyds Banking Group pays an annual dividend of $0.13 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.2%. Lloyds Banking Group pays out 32.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ pays out 96.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Lloyds Banking Group and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lloyds Banking Group	0	4	5	1	2.70
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	2	5	0	0	1.71

Insider and Institutional Ownership

2.2% of Lloyds Banking Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Lloyds Banking Group shares are owned by 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.

Profitability

This table compares Lloyds Banking Group and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lloyds Banking Group	17.51%	9.28%	0.48%
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	15.69%	13.22%	0.71%

Risk and Volatility

Lloyds Banking Group has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lloyds Banking Group and Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lloyds Banking Group	$43.81 billion	1.53	$5.65 billion	$0.40	11.28
Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ	$17.44 billion	N/A	$2.60 billion	$0.62	10.50

Lloyds Banking Group has higher revenue and earnings than Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ. Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lloyds Banking Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Lloyds Banking Group beats Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of banking and financial services in the United Kingdom and internationally. It operates in three segments: Retail; Commercial Banking; and Insurance, Pensions and Investments. The Retail segment offers a range of financial service products, including current accounts, savings, mortgages, motor finance, unsecured loans, leasing solutions, and credit cards to personal customers. The Commercial Banking segment provides lending, transactional banking, working capital management, risk management, and debt financing services to small and medium-sized entities, corporates, and institutions. The Insurance, Pensions, and Investments segment offers insurance, investment, and pension management products and services. It also provides digital banking services. The company offers its products and services under the Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows, MBNA, Schroders Personal Wealth, Black Horse, Lex Autolease, Birmingham Midshires, LDC, AMC, Embark Group, Citra, IWeb, Cavendish Online, and Tusker brand names. Lloyds Banking Group plc was founded in 1695 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Svenska Handelsbanken Ab Publ

Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) provides various banking products and services for private and corporate customers primarily in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, the United States, Luxembourg, Finland, and Poland. The company offers savings, transactions, business, currency, and investment accounts, as well as accounts for cash pool, and forestry and agriculture; mortgage and committed loans, and private loans; mutual funds; pension products; credit and debit cards; and payment and reconciliation services, as well as foreign exchange rate services. It also provides financing for investments, such as equipment, cars, computers, and other inventories, as well as vehicle and real estate financing services; green loans and advisor services; investment and other financing services; medical care, and group and health insurance products; forestry and farming banking products; and online and mobile banking services, as well as various banking services for children and young people. In addition, the company offers financial services, that includes asset management, transactional banking, corporate finance, financing, markets, trade finance, market information and research services to large corporations; cash management solutions; and various corporate banking services to small and medium-sized companies and large corporates, as well as private banking services. Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ) was incorporated in 1871 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.