LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE – Get Free Report) and Lufax (NYSE:LU – Get Free Report) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation.
Volatility & Risk
LendingTree has a beta of 2.05, meaning that its share price is 105% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lufax has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for LendingTree and Lufax, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| LendingTree | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2.71 |
| Lufax | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.75 |
Profitability
This table compares LendingTree and Lufax’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| LendingTree | 14.33% | 14.57% | 4.49% |
| Lufax | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
68.3% of LendingTree shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.1% of Lufax shares are held by institutional investors. 4.0% of LendingTree shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares LendingTree and Lufax”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| LendingTree | $1.27 billion | 0.31 | $151.31 million | $12.90 | 2.20 |
| Lufax | $3.77 billion | 0.28 | -$291.79 million | ($0.61) | -2.03 |
LendingTree has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Lufax. Lufax is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LendingTree, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
LendingTree beats Lufax on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About LendingTree
LendingTree, Inc., through its subsidiary, operates online consumer platform in the United States. It operates through three segments: Home, Consumer, and Insurance. The Home segment offers purchase mortgage, refinance mortgage, and home equity loans and lines of credit; and real estate brokerage services. The Consumer segment provides credit cards; personal, small business, student, and auto loans; deposit accounts; and other credit products, such as debt settlement services. The Insurance segment includes information, tools, and access to insurance quote products, including home, automobile, and health and Medicare through which consumers are matched with insurance lead aggregators to obtain insurance offers and policies. In addition, the company offers QuoteWizard, a marketplace for insurance comparison; ValuePenguin, a personal finance website that offers consumers objective analysis on various financial topics from insurance to credit cards; and Stash, a consumer investing and banking platform that offers a suite of personal investment accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs, custodial investment accounts, and banking services, including checking accounts and debit cards with a Stock-Back rewards program. The company was formerly known as Tree.com, Inc. and changed its name to LendingTree, Inc. in January 2015. LendingTree, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
About Lufax
Lufax Holding Ltd operates as a financial service empowering institution for small and micro businesses in China. The company offers loan products, including general unsecured loans and secured loans, as well as consumer finance loans. It also provides wealth management products, such as asset management plans, mutual fund products, private investment fund products, and trust products. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Shanghai, China.
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