Reviewing Freedom (NASDAQ:FRHC) and Equitable (NYSE:EQH)

Equitable (NYSE:EQH) and Freedom (NASDAQ:FRHC) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Equitable and Freedom, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Equitable	1	2	10	1	2.79
Freedom	0	2	1	0	2.33

Equitable currently has a consensus price target of $61.82, indicating a potential upside of 17.39%. Freedom has a consensus price target of $159.00, indicating a potential downside of 8.14%. Given Equitable’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Equitable is more favorable than Freedom.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.7% of Equitable shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.3% of Freedom shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Equitable shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 69.8% of Freedom shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Equitable and Freedom”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Equitable	$11.66 billion	1.23	-$1.38 billion	($3.31)	-15.91
Freedom	$2.19 billion	5.04	$153.33 million	$2.53	68.42

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

Profitability

This table compares Equitable and Freedom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Equitable	-8.72%	511.35%	0.61%
Freedom	6.47%	10.96%	1.24%

Volatility & Risk

Equitable has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Freedom has a beta of 0.69, suggesting that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Equitable beats Freedom on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Equitable

Equitable Holdings, Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries, operates as a diversified financial services company worldwide. The company operates through six segments: Individual Retirement, Group Retirement, Investment Management and Research, Protection Solutions, Wealth Management, and Legacy. The Individual Retirement segment offers a suite of variable annuity products primarily to affluent and high net worth individuals. The Group Retirement segment provides tax-deferred investment and retirement services or products to plans sponsored by educational entities, municipalities, and not-for-profit entities, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. The Investment Management and Research segment offers diversified investment management, research, and related services to various clients through institutional. The Protection Solutions segment provides life insurance products, such as VUL insurance and IUL insurance, term life, and employee benefits business, such as dental, vision, life, as well as short- and long-term disability insurance products to small and medium-sized businesses. The Wealth Management segment offers discretionary and non-discretionary investment advisory accounts, financial planning and advice, life insurance, and annuity products. The Legacy segment consists of the capital intensive fixed-rate GMxB business that includes ROP death benefits. The company was formerly known as AXA Equitable Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Equitable Holdings, Inc. in January 2020. Equitable Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1859 and is based in New York, New York.

About Freedom

Freedom Holding Corp., through its subsidiaries, provides securities brokerage, securities dealing, market making, investment research, investment counseling, and investment banking services. It offers retail brokerage services for exchange-traded and over-the-counter corporate equity and debt securities, money market instruments, exchange traded options and futures contracts, government bonds, and mutual funds; securities trading; underwriting services; margin lending services collateralized by securities and cash in the customer’s account; various investment education and training courses; investment research services; and commercial banking services, including payment cards, digital mortgages, and digital business and digital auto loans, as well as Freedom Box, a package of payment acquiring services. The company also provides capital raising solutions for corporate clients through initial public offerings and follow-on offerings; and debt capital markets solutions that focuses on structuring and distributing private and public debt for various purposes, including buyouts, acquisitions, growth capital financings, and recapitalizations, as well as information processing services. In addition, it facilitates repurchase and reverse repurchase agreements in proprietary trading activities; and covers short positions and settle other securities obligations to accommodate customers’ needs and finance its inventory positions. Further, the company offers proprietary trading and investment services, as well as insurance products; and Tradernet software platform for client margin risk evaluation and middle office security transfer requests. It operates in Central Asia, Eastern Europe, rest of Europe, the United States, Russia, the Middle East, and Caucasus. The company was formerly known as BMB Munai, Inc. and changed its name to Freedom Holding Corp. Freedom Holding Corp. was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan.