Critical Analysis: Acadian Asset Management (AAMI) & Its Peers

Acadian Asset Management (NYSE:AAMI) is one of 86 public companies in the “Investment advice” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Acadian Asset Management to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Acadian Asset Management and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Acadian Asset Management	$505.60 million	$65.80 million	11.24
Acadian Asset Management Competitors	$2.33 billion	$310.68 million	17.10

Acadian Asset Management’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than Acadian Asset Management. Acadian Asset Management is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Volatility & Risk

Acadian Asset Management has a beta of 1.46, meaning that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acadian Asset Management’s peers have a beta of 1.03, meaning that their average stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Acadian Asset Management and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acadian Asset Management	0	1	0	0	2.00
Acadian Asset Management Competitors	859	4126	4232	162	2.39

Acadian Asset Management presently has a consensus target price of $27.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.23%. As a group, “Investment advice” companies have a potential upside of 7.95%. Given Acadian Asset Management’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Acadian Asset Management has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Acadian Asset Management and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Acadian Asset Management	16.81%	1,000.27%	18.11%
Acadian Asset Management Competitors	9.90%	125.48%	6.94%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

98.7% of Acadian Asset Management shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 56.3% of shares of all “Investment advice” companies are held by institutional investors. 27.7% of Acadian Asset Management shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 20.9% of shares of all “Investment advice” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Acadian Asset Management pays an annual dividend of $0.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.2%. Acadian Asset Management pays out 1.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Investment advice” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.3% and pay out 47.6% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Acadian Asset Management peers beat Acadian Asset Management on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Acadian Asset Management Company Profile

Acadian Asset Management Inc. is a publically owned asset management holding company. The firm provides its services to individuals and institutions. It manages separate client focused portfolios through its subsidiaries. The firm also launches equity mutual funds for its clients. It invests in public equity, fixed income, and alternative investment markets through its subsidiaries. The firm was founded in 1980 is based Boston, Massachusetts. It was formally known as BrightSphere Investment Group plc. BrightSphere Investment Group Inc. was formed in 1980 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.