Financial Contrast: Federal Agricultural Mortgage (NYSE:AGM) and Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT)

Federal Agricultural Mortgage (NYSE:AGM) and Euronet Worldwide (NASDAQ:EEFT) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Federal Agricultural Mortgage and Euronet Worldwide”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Federal Agricultural Mortgage	$410.30 million	6.00	$207.41 million	$17.38	13.06
Euronet Worldwide	$4.24 billion	0.64	$309.50 million	$6.93	10.29

Euronet Worldwide has higher revenue and earnings than Federal Agricultural Mortgage. Euronet Worldwide is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Federal Agricultural Mortgage, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Federal Agricultural Mortgage and Euronet Worldwide, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Federal Agricultural Mortgage	0	1	1	0	2.50
Euronet Worldwide	1	3	3	0	2.29

Federal Agricultural Mortgage presently has a consensus price target of $228.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.46%. Euronet Worldwide has a consensus price target of $96.00, suggesting a potential upside of 34.59%. Given Euronet Worldwide’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Euronet Worldwide is more favorable than Federal Agricultural Mortgage.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

68.0% of Federal Agricultural Mortgage shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Euronet Worldwide shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.9% of Federal Agricultural Mortgage shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.2% of Euronet Worldwide shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Federal Agricultural Mortgage has a beta of 0.99, meaning that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Euronet Worldwide has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Federal Agricultural Mortgage and Euronet Worldwide’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Federal Agricultural Mortgage	29.98%	19.09%	0.65%
Euronet Worldwide	6.63%	28.60%	5.67%

Summary

Euronet Worldwide beats Federal Agricultural Mortgage on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Federal Agricultural Mortgage

Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation provides a secondary market for various loans made to borrowers in the United States. It operates through four segments: Corporate AgFinance, Farm & Ranch, Rural Utilities, and Renewable Energy. The company’s Agricultural Finance line of business engages in purchasing and retaining eligible loans and securities; guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest on securities that represent interests in or obligations secured by pools of eligible loans; servicing eligible loans; and issuing LTSPCs for eligible loans. Its Rural Infrastructure Finance line of business is involved in the purchase of rural utilities loans and renewable energy loans and guarantees of securities backed by loans, as well as LTSPCs for pools of eligible rural utilities loans; by loans for electric or telecommunications facilities by lenders organized as cooperatives to borrowers; and other financial institutions that are secured by pools of eligible loans. Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.

About Euronet Worldwide

Euronet Worldwide, Inc. provides payment and transaction processing and distribution solutions to financial institutions, retailers, service providers, and individual consumers worldwide. It operates through three segments: Electronic Fund Transfer Processing, epay, and Money Transfer. The Electronic Fund Transfer Processing segment provides electronic payment solutions, including automated teller machine (ATM) cash withdrawal and deposit services, ATM network participation, outsourced ATM and point-of-sale (POS) management solutions, credit and debit and prepaid card outsourcing, card issuing, and merchant acquiring services. It also offers ATM and POS currency conversion, ATM surcharge, advertising, customer relationship management, mobile top-up, bill payment, fraud management, foreign remittance and cardless payout, banknote recycling, and tax-refund services; and integrated electronic financial transaction software solutions for electronic payment and transaction delivery systems. The epay segment distributes and processes prepaid mobile airtime and other electronic payment products; and provides payment processing services for various prepaid products, cards, and services, as well as vouchers and physical gift fulfillment, and gift card distribution and processing services. This segment operates a network of approximately 821,000 POS terminals. The Money Transfer segment offers consumer-to-consumer and account-to-account money transfer, customers bill payment, check cashing, foreign currency exchange, mobile top-up, and cash management and foreign currency risk management services, as well as payment alternatives, such as money orders and prepaid debit cards. The company was formerly known as Euronet Services, Inc. and changed its name to Euronet Worldwide, Inc. in August 2001. Euronet Worldwide, Inc. was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Leawood, Kansas.