Head-To-Head Review: Westwood Holdings Group (NYSE:WHG) vs. ONEX (OTCMKTS:ONEXF)

Westwood Holdings Group (NYSE:WHG) and ONEX (OTCMKTS:ONEXF) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Dividends

Westwood Holdings Group pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. ONEX pays an annual dividend of $0.29 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.4%. Westwood Holdings Group pays out 75.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ONEX pays out 3.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Westwood Holdings Group and ONEX”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Westwood Holdings Group	$97.76 million	1.54	$7.06 million	$0.79	20.08
ONEX	$899.00 million	5.48	$617.00 million	$8.87	8.10

ONEX has higher revenue and earnings than Westwood Holdings Group. ONEX is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Westwood Holdings Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Westwood Holdings Group has a beta of 0.72, meaning that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ONEX has a beta of 1.24, meaning that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Westwood Holdings Group and ONEX, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Westwood Holdings Group	0	0	1	0	3.00
ONEX	0	1	2	0	2.67

Profitability

This table compares Westwood Holdings Group and ONEX’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Westwood Holdings Group	7.22%	8.24%	6.85%
ONEX	68.63%	7.16%	4.75%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

56.6% of Westwood Holdings Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.7% of ONEX shares are held by institutional investors. 17.4% of Westwood Holdings Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

ONEX beats Westwood Holdings Group on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Westwood Holdings Group

Westwood Holdings Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries, manages investment assets and provides services for its clients. The company operates in two segments, Advisory and Trust. The Advisory segment provides investment advisory services to corporate retirement plans, public retirement plans, endowments, foundations, individuals, and the Westwood Funds; and investment sub-advisory services to mutual funds, pooled investment vehicles, and its Trust segment. The Trust segment offers trust and custodial services; and participates in common trust funds that it sponsors to institutions and high net worth individuals. Westwood Holdings Group, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Dallas, Texas.

About ONEX

Onex Corporation is a private equity firm specializing in acquisitions and platform acquisitions. The firm makes investments in buyouts, large- middle market, large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap market and distressed companies. It also invests in recapitalization, growth capital, corporate carve-outs of subsidiaries and mission-critical supply divisions from multinational corporations, operational restructurings of undervalued businesses, and builds up. The firm seeks to invest in technology, electronics manufacturing services, industrial, aerospace, healthcare, retail, restaurants, industrials products, customer care services, metal services, building products, entertainment, gaming, cabinetry products, commercial vehicles, commercial and investment banking, financial services, commercial and multi-unit residential real estate. It invests in global businesses headquartered in North America, including United States and Canada, or Europe. The firm seeks to invest between $125 million and $1 billion in companies that have minimum revenues of $300 million. It does not consider size if the company is in an industry in which the firm already has presence. The firm seeks to make direct as well as co-investments through managed private equity, real estate and credit funds. It seeks to acquire a control position in its portfolio companies. Onex Corporation was founded in 1984 and is based in Toronto, Canada with additional offices in New York, New York; Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey; Boston, Massachusetts and London, United Kingdom.