Analyzing Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM) & Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF)

Stifel Financial (NYSE:SF) and Brookfield Asset Management (NYSE:BAM) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation and risk.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

82.0% of Stifel Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.4% of Brookfield Asset Management shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of Stifel Financial shares are owned by company 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.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Stifel Financial and Brookfield Asset Management, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stifel Financial	1	3	5	0	2.44
Brookfield Asset Management	1	7	7	1	2.50

Stifel Financial currently has a consensus target price of $85.71, suggesting a potential upside of 24.96%. Brookfield Asset Management has a consensus target price of $57.03, suggesting a potential upside of 12.02%. Given Stifel Financial’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Stifel Financial is more favorable than Brookfield Asset Management.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Stifel Financial and Brookfield Asset Management”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stifel Financial	$5.53 billion	1.87	$683.78 million	$5.76	11.91
Brookfield Asset Management	$4.82 billion	17.32	$2.48 billion	$1.72	29.60

Brookfield Asset Management has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Stifel Financial. Stifel Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Brookfield Asset Management, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Stifel Financial and Brookfield Asset Management’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stifel Financial	16.50%	19.38%	2.39%
Brookfield Asset Management	48.89%	31.50%	15.75%

Dividends

Stifel Financial pays an annual dividend of $1.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Brookfield Asset Management pays an annual dividend of $2.01 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.9%. Stifel Financial pays out 23.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Brookfield Asset Management pays out 116.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Stifel Financial has raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years and Brookfield Asset Management has raised its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Risk & Volatility

Stifel Financial has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Brookfield Asset Management has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Brookfield Asset Management beats Stifel Financial on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Stifel Financial

Stifel Financial Corp., a financial services and bank holding company, provides retail and institutional wealth management, and investment banking services to individual investors, corporations, municipalities, and institutions in the United States and internationally. It operates in three segments: Global Wealth Management, Institutional Group, and Other. The company provides private client services, including securities transaction and financial planning services; institutional equity and fixed income sales, trading and research, and municipal finance services; investment banking services, such as mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, and private placements; and retail and commercial banking services comprising personal and commercial lending programs, as well as deposit accounts. It participates in and manages underwritings for corporate and public finance; and offers financial advisory and securities brokerage services. The company was founded in 1890 and is headquartered in Saint Louis, Missouri.

About Brookfield Asset Management

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. is a real estate investment firm specializing in alternative asset management services. Its renewable power and transition business includes the operates in the hydroelectric, wind, solar, distributed generation, and sustainable solution sector. The company's infrastructure business engages in the utilities, transport, midstream, and data infrastructure sectors. In addition, its private equity business offers industrial, infrastructure, and business services sectors; and real estate business, which includes housing, logistics, hospitality, science and innovation, office, and retail sectors. Further, it provides credit business; and insurance solution in the reinsurance, annuities, operating platform, and investment solutions sectors. Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. was incorporated in 2022 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.