World Acceptance (NASDAQ:WRLD) and Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) Head-To-Head Comparison

World Acceptance (NASDAQ:WRLD) and Bread Financial (NYSE:BFH) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares World Acceptance and Bread Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
World Acceptance	11.82%	13.47%	4.83%
Bread Financial	13.87%	26.24%	3.34%

Risk & Volatility

World Acceptance has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bread Financial has a beta of 1.93, indicating that its share price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for World Acceptance and Bread Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
World Acceptance	2	0	0	0	1.00
Bread Financial	4	6	2	0	1.83

World Acceptance currently has a consensus target price of $56.00, indicating a potential downside of 58.44%. Bread Financial has a consensus target price of $36.55, indicating a potential upside of 6.61%. Given Bread Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Bread Financial is more favorable than World Acceptance.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares World Acceptance and Bread Financial’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
World Acceptance	$616.55 million	1.33	$21.23 million	$11.54	11.68
Bread Financial	$5.17 billion	0.33	$718.00 million	$14.32	2.39

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

83.6% of World Acceptance shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.5% of Bread Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 40.9% of World Acceptance shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Bread Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Bread Financial beats World Acceptance on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About World Acceptance

World Acceptance Corporation engages in consumer finance business in the United States. The company offers short-term small installment loans, medium-term larger installment loans, related credit insurance, and ancillary products and services to individuals. It also provides income tax return preparation and filing services; and automobile club memberships. It serves individuals with limited access to other sources of consumer credit, such as banks, credit unions, other consumer finance businesses, and credit card lenders. World Acceptance Corporation was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.

About Bread Financial

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. provides tech-forward payment and lending solutions to customers and consumer-based industries in North America. It offers credit card and other loans financing services, including risk management solutions, account origination, and funding services for private label and co-brand credit card programs, as well as through Bread partnerships; and Comenity-branded general purpose cash-back credit. The company also manages and services the loans it originates for private label, co-brand, and general-purpose credit card programs, and installment loans and split-pay products; and provides marketing, and data and analytics services. In addition, it offers an enhanced digital suite that includes a unified software development kit, which provides access to its suite of products, as well as promotes credit payment options earlier in the shopping experience. Further, the company through Bread, a digital payments platform and robust suite of application programming interfaces allows merchants and partners to integrate online point-of-sale financing and other digital payment products. It offers its products under the Bread CashbackTM, Bread PayTM, and Bread SavingsTM brands. The company was formerly known as Alliance Data Systems Corporation and changed its name to Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. in March 2022. Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.