Axos Financial (NYSE:AX) and Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) Head to Head Comparison

Axos Financial (NYSE:AX) and Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, risk, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

83.8% of Axos Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 4.9% of Axos Financial shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.9% of Burford Capital shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Axos Financial and Burford Capital, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Axos Financial	0	1	6	0	2.86
Burford Capital	2	0	2	0	2.00

Axos Financial presently has a consensus target price of $97.42, suggesting a potential upside of 9.57%. Burford Capital has a consensus target price of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 100.00%. Given Burford Capital’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Burford Capital is more favorable than Axos Financial.

Profitability

This table compares Axos Financial and Burford Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Axos Financial	22.41%	16.72%	1.77%
Burford Capital	18.42%	2.71%	1.37%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Axos Financial and Burford Capital”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Axos Financial	$1.95 billion	2.59	$432.91 million	$7.47	11.90
Burford Capital	$546.09 million	3.61	$146.48 million	$0.38	23.68

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

Risk and Volatility

Axos Financial has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its stock price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Burford Capital has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Axos Financial beats Burford Capital on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Axos Financial

Axos Financial, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides consumer and business banking products in the United States. It operates through two segments, Banking Business and Securities Business. The company offers deposits products, including consumer and business checking, demand, savings, time deposit, money market, zero balance, and insured cash sweep accounts. It also provides residential single family, multifamily, and commercial mortgage loans; commercial real estate secured loans; commercial and industrial non-real estate, asset-backed, lines of credit, and term loans; automobile loans; fixed rate unsecured loans; and other loans, such as structure settlements, small business administration consumer loans, and securities-backed loans. In addition, the company offers ACH origination, wire transfer, commercial check printing, business bill pay and account transfer; remote deposit capture, mobile deposit, lockbox, merchant, and online payment portal; concierge banking; mobile and text message banking; and payment services, as well as debit and credit cards, and digital wallets. Further, it provides disclosed clearing services; back-office services, such as record keeping, trade reporting, accounting, general back-office support, securities and margin lending, reorganization assistance, and custody of securities; and financing to brokerage customers. The company was formerly known as BofI Holding, Inc. and changed its name to Axos Financial, Inc. in September 2018. Axos Financial, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

About Burford Capital

Burford Capital Limited provides legal finance products and services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Capital Provision, and Asset Management and Other Provision. The Capital Provision segment provides capital to the legal industry or in connection with legal matters directly and through investment in private funds; legal risk management services; lower risk legal finance business focusing on pre-settlement litigation matters with lower risk and lower expected returns; post-settlement finance; and complex strategies in which it acts as a principal and acquires assets that are mispriced. The Asset Management and Other Services segment provides services to the legal industry, including litigation insurance. Burford Capital Limited was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey.