Houlihan Lokey (HLI) Competitors

Evercore (NYSE:EVR) and Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, media sentiment, community ranking and analyst recommendations.

Is EVR or HLI a better dividend stock?

Evercore pays an annual dividend of $3.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Houlihan Lokey pays an annual dividend of $2.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Evercore pays out 47.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Houlihan Lokey pays out 54.6% 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. Evercore has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years and Houlihan Lokey has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years.

Do analysts rate EVR or HLI?

Evercore presently has a consensus price target of $180.67, indicating a potential downside of 4.93%. Houlihan Lokey has a consensus price target of $123.33, indicating a potential downside of 6.52%. Given Houlihan Lokey's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Evercore is more favorable than Houlihan Lokey.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Evercore	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Houlihan Lokey	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer EVR or HLI?

Evercore received 223 more outperform votes than Houlihan Lokey when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.99% of users gave Evercore an outperform vote while only 62.12% of users gave Houlihan Lokey an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Evercore	Outperform Votes 510 63.99%	Underperform Votes 287 36.01%
Houlihan Lokey	Outperform Votes 287 62.12%	Underperform Votes 175 37.88%

Does the media prefer EVR or HLI?

In the previous week, Houlihan Lokey had 3 more articles in the media than Evercore. MarketBeat recorded 4 mentions for Houlihan Lokey and 1 mentions for Evercore. Evercore's average media sentiment score of 0.68 beat Houlihan Lokey's score of 0.00 indicating that Houlihan Lokey is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Evercore	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Houlihan Lokey	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is EVR or HLI more profitable?

Houlihan Lokey has a net margin of 14.90% compared to Houlihan Lokey's net margin of 10.53%. Evercore's return on equity of 18.06% beat Houlihan Lokey's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Evercore	10.53%	16.46%	8.31%
Houlihan Lokey	14.90%	18.06%	10.51%

Which has higher valuation and earnings, EVR or HLI?

Evercore has higher revenue and earnings than Houlihan Lokey. Evercore is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Houlihan Lokey, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Evercore	$2.43B	3.03	$255.48M	$6.37	29.83
Houlihan Lokey	$1.81B	5.04	$254.22M	$4.03	32.74

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of EVR or HLI?

86.2% of Evercore shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.1% of Houlihan Lokey shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.7% of Evercore shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 26.0% of Houlihan Lokey shares are owned by company 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.

Which has more volatility and risk, EVR or HLI?

Evercore has a beta of 1.44, indicating that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Houlihan Lokey has a beta of 0.67, indicating that its stock price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Houlihan Lokey beats Evercore on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.