Janus Henderson Group (NYSE:JHG) vs. MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Financial Survey

MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) and Janus Henderson Group (NYSE:JHG) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and earnings.

Dividends

MSCI pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Janus Henderson Group pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. MSCI pays out 46.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Janus Henderson Group pays out 23.6% 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. MSCI has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years and Janus Henderson Group has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Janus Henderson Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Volatility and Risk

MSCI has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Janus Henderson Group has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for MSCI and Janus Henderson Group, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MSCI	0	0	11	1	3.08
Janus Henderson Group	0	5	1	1	2.43

MSCI currently has a consensus target price of $713.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.46%. Janus Henderson Group has a consensus target price of $49.40, indicating a potential downside of 4.91%. Given MSCI’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe MSCI is more favorable than Janus Henderson Group.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.0% of MSCI shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.9% of Janus Henderson Group shares are held by institutional investors. 3.8% of MSCI shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 21.0% of Janus Henderson Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares MSCI and Janus Henderson Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MSCI	$3.13 billion	14.61	$1.20 billion	$17.51	35.91
Janus Henderson Group	$3.17 billion	2.53	$815.90 million	$5.08	10.23

MSCI has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Janus Henderson Group. Janus Henderson Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MSCI, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares MSCI and Janus Henderson Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MSCI	40.74%	-65.48%	24.49%
Janus Henderson Group	24.33%	14.59%	9.56%

Summary

MSCI beats Janus Henderson Group on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, application, an integrated view of risk and return service, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, counterparty, and climate risk across asset classes; managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The ESG and Climate segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG impacts the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and data, ratings, research, and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation. The All Other Private Assets segment includes real estate and infrastructure data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights; business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers; and offers investment decision support tools for private capital. The Private Capital Solutions segment offers tools to help private asset investors across mission-critical workflows, such as sourcing terms and conditions, evaluating operating performance, managing risk and other activities supporting private capital investing. MSCI Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Janus Henderson Group

Janus Henderson Group plc is an asset management holding entity. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides services to institutional, retail clients, and high net worth clients. It manages separate client-focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm also manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds for its clients. It invests in public equity and fixed income markets, as well as invests in real estate and private equity. Janus Henderson Group plc was founded in 1934 and is based in London, United Kingdom with additional offices in Jersey, United Kingdom and Sydney, Australia.