Contrasting HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (NYSE:HASI) & American Express (NYSE:AXP)

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (NYSE:HASI) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital and American Express”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital	$400.50 million	13.77	$184.55 million	$1.36	31.58
American Express	$74.17 billion	2.91	$10.83 billion	$16.03	19.71

American Express has higher revenue and earnings than HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital. American Express is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital and American Express’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital	46.08%	12.06%	3.99%
American Express	15.13%	33.95%	3.73%

Risk and Volatility

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital has a beta of 1.47, indicating that its stock price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, American Express has a beta of 1.08, indicating that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital and American Express, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital	0	2	10	0	2.83
American Express	1	13	8	0	2.32

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital presently has a consensus target price of $45.00, indicating a potential upside of 4.78%. American Express has a consensus target price of $357.47, indicating a potential upside of 13.14%. Given American Express’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe American Express is more favorable than HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.1% of HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.3% of American Express shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of American Express shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital pays an annual dividend of $1.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. American Express pays an annual dividend of $3.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital pays out 125.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Express pays out 23.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years and American Express has increased its dividend for 4 consecutive years.

Summary

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital beats American Express on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital

HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc., through its subsidiaries, engages in the investment of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and sustainable infrastructure markets in the United States. The company’s portfolio includes equity investments, commercial and government receivables, real estate, and debt securities. It invests in climate solutions, including Behind-the-Meter, which distributes energy projects that reduce energy usage or cost through heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, as well as lighting, energy controls, roofs, windows, building shells, and/or combined heat and power systems; Grid-Connected, a renewable energy projects that deploy cleaner energy sources, such as solar, solar-plus-storage, and wind to generate power production; and Fuels, Transport, and Nature, a range of real assets spanning high-emitting economic sectors other than the power grid such as transportation and fuels comprising renewable natural gas plants, transportation fleet enhancements, ecological restoration, and other projects. HA Sustainable Infrastructure Capital, Inc. was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland.

About American Express

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated payments company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. The company’s products and services include credit card, charge card, banking, and other payment and financing products; network services; expense management products and services; and travel and lifestyle services. It also provides merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, point-of-sale marketing, and information products and services for merchants; and fraud prevention services, as well as the design and operation of customer loyalty programs. In addition, the company operates lounges at airports under Centurion Lounge brand name. It sells its products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations through mobile and online applications, affiliate marketing, customer referral programs, third-party service providers and business partners, direct mail, telephone, in-house sales teams, and direct response advertising. American Express Company was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York.