Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) & Axos Financial (NYSE:AX) Critical Analysis

Axos Financial (NYSE:AX) and Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Axos Financial and Lazard, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Axos Financial	0	1	6	1	3.00
Lazard	3	4	4	0	2.09

Axos Financial presently has a consensus target price of $104.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.42%. Lazard has a consensus target price of $57.13, suggesting a potential upside of 9.31%. Given Lazard’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Lazard is more favorable than Axos Financial.

Volatility and Risk

Axos Financial has a beta of 1.27, indicating that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lazard has a beta of 1.38, indicating that its stock price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

83.8% of Axos Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.8% of Lazard shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of Axos Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of Lazard shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Axos Financial	22.66%	16.98%	1.79%
Lazard	7.49%	34.54%	5.98%

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Axos Financial	$1.32 billion	4.17	$432.91 million	$7.89	12.33
Lazard	$3.10 billion	1.90	$236.83 million	$2.18	23.97

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

Summary

Axos Financial beats Lazard on 9 of the 15 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 Lazard

Lazard, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a financial advisory and asset management firm in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. It operates in two segments, Financial Advisory and Asset Management. The Financial Advisory segment offers financial advisory services, such as mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, shareholder, sovereign, geopolitical advisory, and other strategic advisory services, as well as restructuring and liability management, and capital raising and placement services. This segment offers its services to corporate, partnership, institutional, government, sovereign, and individual clients to various industry areas, including consumers, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, industrials, power and energy/infrastructure, real estate, technology, telecommunication, and media and entertainment. The Asset Management segment offers a range of investment solutions; investment and wealth management services in equity and fixed income strategies; asset allocation strategies; and alternative investments and private equity funds to corporations, public funds, sovereign entities, endowments and foundations, labor funds, financial intermediaries, and private clients. Lazard, Inc. was incorporated in 1848 and is headquartered in New York, New York.