Perella Weinberg Partners (NASDAQ:PWP) vs. Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) Critical Contrast

Perella Weinberg Partners (NASDAQ:PWP) and Moody’s (NYSE:MCO) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Dividends

Perella Weinberg Partners pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Moody’s pays an annual dividend of $4.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Perella Weinberg Partners pays out 116.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Moody’s pays out 29.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Moody’s has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

41.1% of Perella Weinberg Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.1% of Moody’s shares are held by institutional investors. 26.1% of Perella Weinberg Partners shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Moody’s shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Perella Weinberg Partners and Moody’s”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Perella Weinberg Partners	$750.90 million	2.31	$35.48 million	$0.24	77.83
Moody’s	$7.72 billion	10.17	$2.46 billion	$13.95	32.21

Moody’s has higher revenue and earnings than Perella Weinberg Partners. Moody’s is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Perella Weinberg Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Perella Weinberg Partners has a beta of 1.74, indicating that its stock price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Moody’s has a beta of 1.37, indicating that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Perella Weinberg Partners and Moody’s’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Perella Weinberg Partners	2.82%	-19.90%	6.78%
Moody’s	31.69%	70.97%	17.98%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Perella Weinberg Partners and Moody’s, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Perella Weinberg Partners	1	1	2	0	2.25
Moody’s	0	6	12	1	2.74

Perella Weinberg Partners currently has a consensus target price of $23.50, suggesting a potential upside of 25.80%. Moody’s has a consensus target price of $544.29, suggesting a potential upside of 21.14%. Given Perella Weinberg Partners’ higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Perella Weinberg Partners is more favorable than Moody’s.

Summary

Moody’s beats Perella Weinberg Partners on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Perella Weinberg Partners

Perella Weinberg Partners, an independent investment banking company, provides strategic and financial advice services in the United States and internationally. The company offers advisory services related to strategic and financial decisions, mergers and acquisition execution, shareholder and defense advisory, and financing and capital solutions advice with resources focused on restructuring, liability management, and capital markets advisory, as well as underwriting and research services primarily for the energy and related industries. It serves public multinational corporations, mid-sized public and private companies, financial sponsors, individual entrepreneurs, private and institutional investors, creditor committees, and government institutions in consumer and retail; energy and energy transition; financial services and FinTech; healthcare; industrials and infrastructure; and technology, telecommunication, and media industries. Perella Weinberg Partners is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Moody’s

Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm worldwide. It operates in two segments, Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Services. The Moody’s Analytics segment develops a range of products and services that support the risk management activities of institutional participants in financial markets. It also offers credit research, credit models and analytics, economics data and models, and structured finance solutions; data sets on companies and securities; and SaaS solutions supporting banking, insurance, and know your customer workflows. The Moody’s Investors Service segment publishes credit ratings and provides assessment services on various debt obligations, programs and facilities, and entities that issue such obligations, such as various corporate, financial institution, and governmental obligations, as well as structured finance securities. The company was formerly known as Dun and Bradstreet Company and changed its name to Moody’s Corporation in September 2000. Moody’s Corporation was founded in 1900 and is headquartered in New York, New York.