Contrasting T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) and Sprott (NYSE:SII)

T. Rowe Price Group (NASDAQ:TROW) and Sprott (NYSE:SII) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares T. Rowe Price Group and Sprott”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
T. Rowe Price Group	$7.09 billion	3.16	$2.10 billion	$9.18	11.18
Sprott	$178.65 million	17.84	$49.29 million	$1.95	63.37

T. Rowe Price Group has higher revenue and earnings than Sprott. T. Rowe Price Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sprott, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

T. Rowe Price Group pays an annual dividend of $5.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.9%. Sprott pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. T. Rowe Price Group pays out 55.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sprott pays out 82.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. T. Rowe Price Group has raised its dividend for 39 consecutive years and Sprott has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. T. Rowe Price Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares T. Rowe Price Group and Sprott’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
T. Rowe Price Group	28.89%	19.95%	15.09%
Sprott	23.26%	15.01%	11.97%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for T. Rowe Price Group and Sprott, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
T. Rowe Price Group	4	11	0	0	1.73
Sprott	0	2	2	0	2.50

T. Rowe Price Group presently has a consensus price target of $106.92, indicating a potential upside of 4.15%. Sprott has a consensus price target of $132.00, indicating a potential upside of 6.82%. Given Sprott’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sprott is more favorable than T. Rowe Price Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

73.4% of T. Rowe Price Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.3% of Sprott shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of T. Rowe Price Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of Sprott shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

T. Rowe Price Group has a beta of 1.53, indicating that its share price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sprott has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

T. Rowe Price Group beats Sprott on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About T. Rowe Price Group

T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm provides its services to individuals, institutional investors, retirement plans, financial intermediaries, and institutions. It launches and manages equity and fixed income mutual funds. The firm invests in the public equity and fixed income markets across the globe. It employs fundamental and quantitative analysis with a bottom-up approach. The firm utilizes in-house and external research to make its investments. It employs socially responsible investing with a focus on environmental, social, and governance issues. It makes investment in late-stage venture capital transactions and usually invests between $3 million and $5 million. The firm was previously known as T. Rowe Group, Inc. and T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland, with additional offices in Colorado Springs, Colorado; Owings Mills, Maryland; San Francisco, California; New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Tampa, Florida; Toronto, Ontario; Hellerup, Denmark; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; Zurich, Switzerland; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; London, United Kingdom; Sydney, New South Wales; Hong Kong; Tokyo, Japan; Singapore; Frankfurt, Shanghai, China; Germany, Madrid, Spain, Milan, Italy, Stockholm, Sweden, Melbourne, Australia, Amsterdam, Netherlands and Washington, DC.

About Sprott

Sprott Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides asset management, portfolio management, wealth management, fund management, and administrative and consulting services to its clients. It offers mutual funds, hedge funds, and offshore funds, along with managed accounts. Further, the firm also provides broker-dealer activities. Sprott Inc. was formed on February 13, 2008 and is based in Toronto, Canada.