Mercia Asset Management (MERC) Competitors

ScS Group (LON:SCS) and Mercia Asset Management (LON:MERC) are both small-cap consumer cyclical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, earnings, media sentiment, dividends, profitability, community ranking and analyst recommendations.

Is SCS or MERC a better dividend stock?

ScS Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 15 per share. Mercia Asset Management pays an annual dividend of GBX 1 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.3%. ScS Group pays out 12,500.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Mercia Asset Management pays out 1.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mercia Asset Management is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SCS or MERC?

ScS Group received 148 more outperform votes than Mercia Asset Management when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.80% of users gave ScS Group an outperform vote while only 69.61% of users gave Mercia Asset Management an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
ScS Group	Outperform Votes 219 71.80%	Underperform Votes 86 28.20%
Mercia Asset Management	Outperform Votes 71 69.61%	Underperform Votes 31 30.39%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in SCS or MERC?

74.1% of ScS Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.7% of Mercia Asset Management shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.8% of ScS Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 27.1% of Mercia Asset Management shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, SCS or MERC?

Mercia Asset Management has lower revenue, but higher earnings than ScS Group. ScS Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mercia Asset Management, 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
ScS Group	£325.86M	0.00	£4.45M	£0.12	N/A
Mercia Asset Management	£30.34M	4.35	£436.32M	£97.26	0.31

Do analysts rate SCS or MERC?

Mercia Asset Management has a consensus price target of GBX 64, suggesting a potential upside of 113.33%. Given Mercia Asset Management's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Mercia Asset Management is more favorable than ScS Group.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ScS Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Mercia Asset Management	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the media refer more to SCS or MERC?

In the previous week, Mercia Asset Management had 1 more articles in the media than ScS Group. MarketBeat recorded 1 mentions for Mercia Asset Management and 0 mentions for ScS Group. Mercia Asset Management's average media sentiment score of 1.73 beat ScS Group's score of 0.00 indicating that Mercia Asset Management is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
ScS Group	Neutral
Mercia Asset Management	Very Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, SCS or MERC?

ScS Group has a beta of 0.75, indicating that its stock price is 25% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mercia Asset Management has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is SCS or MERC more profitable?

Mercia Asset Management has a net margin of 1,438.02% compared to ScS Group's net margin of 1.37%. Mercia Asset Management's return on equity of 223.48% beat ScS Group's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ScS Group	1.37%	9.30%	2.77%
Mercia Asset Management	1,438.02%	223.48%	0.31%

Summary

Mercia Asset Management beats ScS Group on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.