Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (NYSE:AVAL) versus T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) Critical Contrast

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores (NYSE:AVAL) and T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and earnings.

Dividends

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. T. Rowe Price Group pays an annual dividend of $5.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores pays out 37.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. T. Rowe Price Group pays out 55.7% 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. T. Rowe Price Group has increased its dividend for 39 consecutive years. T. Rowe Price Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

0.2% of Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.4% of T. Rowe Price Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of T. Rowe Price Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores and T. Rowe Price Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	0	2	0	0	2.00
T. Rowe Price Group	4	11	0	0	1.73

T. Rowe Price Group has a consensus target price of $99.54, indicating a potential downside of 7.32%. Given T. Rowe Price Group’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe T. Rowe Price Group is more favorable than Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores.

Profitability

This table compares Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores and T. Rowe Price Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	4.99%	6.24%	0.62%
T. Rowe Price Group	28.28%	20.60%	15.55%

Risk & Volatility

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores has a beta of 0.61, indicating that its share price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, T. Rowe Price Group has a beta of 1.5, indicating that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores and T. Rowe Price Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores	$6.76 billion	0.87	$344.37 million	$0.37	13.41
T. Rowe Price Group	$7.31 billion	3.15	$2.09 billion	$9.33	11.51

T. Rowe Price Group has higher revenue and earnings than Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores. T. Rowe Price Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

T. Rowe Price Group beats Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores

Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A. provides a range of financial services and products to public and private sector customers in Colombia and Central America. It offers traditional deposit services and products, including checking accounts, savings accounts, time deposits, and other deposits. The company also provides commercial loans comprising general purpose loans, working capital loans, leases, loans funded by development banks, corporate credit cards, and overdraft loans; consumer loans, such as payroll loans, personal loans, automobile and other vehicle loans, credit cards, overdrafts, leases, and general purpose loans; and microcredit and mortgage loans. In addition, the company offers pension and severance fund management services; investment banking, including services relating to capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and project finance transactions; mobile and online banking services; and bancassurance, insurance, trust, bonded warehousing and brokerage transactions, real estate escrow services, merchandise and document storage and deposit, customs agency, cargo management, surety bond and merchandise distribution services, and payment and collection services. Further, it is involved in equity investments in various sectors, including infrastructure, energy and gas, agribusiness, and hospitality; and treasury operations. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia. Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A.

About T. Rowe Price Group

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to individuals, institutional investors, retirement plans, financial intermediaries, and institutions. It launches and manages equity and fixed income mutual funds. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a bottom-up approach. The firm utilizes in-house and external research to make its investments. It employs socially responsible investing with a focus on environmental, social, and governance issues. It makes investment in late-stage venture capital transactions and usually invests between $3 million and $5 million. The firm was previously known as T. Rowe Group, Inc. and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland, with additional offices in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Owings Mills, Maryland; San Francisco, California; New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Tampa, Florida; Toronto, Ontario; Hellerup, Denmark; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; Zurich, Switzerland; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; London, United Kingdom; Sydney, New South Wales; Hong Kong; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Frankfurt, Shanghai, China; Germany, Madrid, Spain, Milan, Italy, Stockholm, Sweden, Melbourne, Australia, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Washington, DC.