Reviewing ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN (NASDAQ:GLDI) and Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR)

Piper Sandler Companies (NYSE:PIPR) and ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN (NASDAQ:GLDI) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Piper Sandler Companies and ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Piper Sandler Companies	$1.53 billion	3.99	$181.11 million	$13.27	25.96
ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.78	229.34

Piper Sandler Companies has higher revenue and earnings than ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN. Piper Sandler Companies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Piper Sandler Companies and ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Piper Sandler Companies	1	3	2	0	2.17
ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN	0	0	0	0	0.00

Piper Sandler Companies presently has a consensus price target of $389.67, suggesting a potential upside of 13.12%. Given Piper Sandler Companies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Piper Sandler Companies is more favorable than ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

72.8% of Piper Sandler Companies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.0% of ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Piper Sandler Companies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Piper Sandler Companies and ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Piper Sandler Companies	13.73%	19.91%	13.64%
ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility & Risk

Piper Sandler Companies has a beta of 1.53, meaning that its share price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN has a beta of 0.06, meaning that its share price is 94% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Piper Sandler Companies pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Piper Sandler Companies pays out 21.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN pays out 205.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Piper Sandler Companies has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Summary

Piper Sandler Companies beats ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Piper Sandler Companies

Piper Sandler Companies operates as an investment bank and institutional securities firm that serves corporations, private equity groups, public entities, non-profit entities, and institutional investors in the United States and internationally. The company offers investment banking and institutional sales, trading, and research services for various equity and fixed income products. It provides advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, equity private placements, and debt and restructuring advisory; raises capital through equity and debt financings; underwrites municipal issuances; and offers municipal financial advisory and loan placement services, as well as various over-the-counter derivative products. The company also offers public finance investment banking services that focus on state and local governments, and cultural and social service non-profit entities, as well as the education, healthcare, hospitality, senior living, and transportation sectors. In addition, it provides equity and fixed income advisory and trade execution services for institutional investors, and government and non-profit entities. Further, the company is involved in the alternative asset management funds merchant banking and healthcare to invest firm capital and to manage capital from outside investors, as well as trading activities. The company was formerly known as Piper Jaffray Companies and changed its name to Piper Sandler Companies in January 2020. Piper Sandler Companies was founded in 1895 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About ETRACS Gold Shares Covered Call ETN

luxury british cocoa grower and chocolatier, hotel chocolat, was founded in 2004 to make exciting chocolate with three guiding principles – authenticity, originality and ethics – which remain central to the brand’s success today. with its rabot estate cocoa plantation in saint lucia, a chocolate manufacturing facility in cambridgeshire and stores across the uk and internationally, hotel chocolat occupies a unique space – being able to link all aspects of chocolate from the tree to the consumer. they also have concessions in john lewis stores nationwide and in david jones, australia. in 2011 hotel chocolat opened a boutique hotel in the grounds of rabot estate on saint lucia, which is also home to boucan restaurant and its pioneering menu of ‘cacao cuisine’. in 2013 hotel chocolat opened two cocoa cuisine restaurants inspired by boucan – rabot 1745 in london’s borough market and roast+conch in leeds. both restaurants reconnect the world of cocoa growing with the luxury of eating it. rec