Janus Henderson Group (NYSE:JHG) vs. MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) Head-To-Head Comparison

Janus Henderson Group (NYSE:JHG) and MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Janus Henderson Group has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSCI has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its share price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Janus Henderson Group and MSCI”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Janus Henderson Group	$3.17 billion	2.53	$815.90 million	$5.08	10.23
MSCI	$3.13 billion	14.61	$1.20 billion	$17.51	35.91

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

87.9% of Janus Henderson Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.0% of MSCI shares are owned by institutional investors. 21.0% of Janus Henderson Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of MSCI shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Janus Henderson Group and MSCI’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Janus Henderson Group	24.33%	14.59%	9.56%
MSCI	40.74%	-65.48%	24.49%

Dividends

Janus Henderson Group pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. MSCI pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. Janus Henderson Group pays out 23.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MSCI pays out 46.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Janus Henderson Group has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and MSCI has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years. Janus Henderson Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Janus Henderson Group and MSCI, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Janus Henderson Group	0	5	1	1	2.43
MSCI	0	0	11	1	3.08

Janus Henderson Group currently has a consensus price target of $49.40, suggesting a potential downside of 4.91%. MSCI has a consensus price target of $713.50, suggesting a potential upside of 13.46%. Given MSCI’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe MSCI is more favorable than Janus Henderson Group.

Summary

MSCI beats Janus Henderson Group on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Janus Henderson Group

Janus Henderson Group plc is an asset management holding entity. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides services to institutional, retail clients, and high net worth clients. It manages separate client-focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm also manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds for its clients. It invests in public equity and fixed income markets, as well as invests in real estate and private equity. Janus Henderson Group plc was founded in 1934 and is based in London, United Kingdom with additional offices in Jersey, United Kingdom and Sydney, Australia.

About MSCI

MSCI Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides critical decision support tools and solutions for the investment community to manage investment processes worldwide. The Index segment provides indexes for use in various areas of the investment process, including indexed financial product, such as ETFs, mutual funds, annuities, futures, options, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives; performance benchmarking; portfolio construction and rebalancing; and asset allocation, as well as licenses GICS and GICS Direct. The Analytics segment offers risk management, performance attribution and portfolio management content, application, an integrated view of risk and return service, and an analysis of market, credit, liquidity, counterparty, and climate risk across asset classes; managed services, including consolidation of client portfolio data, review and reconciliation of input data and results, and customized reporting; and HedgePlatform to measure, evaluate, and monitor the risk of hedge fund investments. The ESG and Climate segment provides products and services that help institutional investors understand how ESG impacts the long-term risk and return of their portfolio and individual security-level investments; and data, ratings, research, and tools to help investors navigate increasing regulation. The All Other Private Assets segment includes real estate and infrastructure data, benchmarks, return-analytics, climate assessments and market insights; business intelligence to real estate owners, managers, developers, and brokers; and offers investment decision support tools for private capital. The Private Capital Solutions segment offers tools to help private asset investors across mission-critical workflows, such as sourcing terms and conditions, evaluating operating performance, managing risk and other activities supporting private capital investing. MSCI Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in New York, New York.