Mercia Asset Management (MERC) Competitors

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

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 3.0%. 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 media favor SCS or MERC?

In the previous week, Mercia Asset Management had 7 more articles in the media than ScS Group. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Mercia Asset Management and 1 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	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
ScS Group	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Mercia Asset Management	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership 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 endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts prefer SCS or MERC?

Mercia Asset Management has a consensus price target of GBX 65.50, indicating a potential upside of 98.48%. Given Mercia Asset Management's stronger consensus rating and higher possible 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

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%

Which has more risk & volatility, SCS or MERC?

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

Which has higher valuation & earnings, 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	4.78	£436.32M	£97.26	0.34

Summary

Mercia Asset Management beats ScS Group on 13 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.