Ricardo (RCDO) Competitors

Ricardo (LON:RCDO) and Alpha Financial Markets Consulting (LON:AFM) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, risk, earnings and media sentiment.

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in RCDO or AFM?

Ricardo received 189 more outperform votes than Alpha Financial Markets Consulting when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 75.53% of users gave Alpha Financial Markets Consulting an outperform vote while only 68.78% of users gave Ricardo an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Ricardo	Outperform Votes 260 68.78%	Underperform Votes 118 31.22%
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting	Outperform Votes 71 75.53%	Underperform Votes 23 24.47%

Is RCDO or AFM more profitable?

Alpha Financial Markets Consulting has a net margin of 6.78% compared to Ricardo's net margin of 0.15%. Alpha Financial Markets Consulting's return on equity of 10.64% beat Ricardo's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ricardo	0.15%	0.42%	4.91%
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting	6.78%	10.64%	7.51%

Which has more risk & volatility, RCDO or AFM?

Ricardo has a beta of 0.58, meaning that its stock price is 42% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alpha Financial Markets Consulting has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of RCDO or AFM?

82.3% of Ricardo shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.8% of Alpha Financial Markets Consulting shares are held by institutional investors. 2.4% of Ricardo shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.4% of Alpha Financial Markets Consulting shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor RCDO or AFM?

In the previous week, Ricardo had 3 more articles in the media than Alpha Financial Markets Consulting. MarketBeat recorded 3 mentions for Ricardo and 0 mentions for Alpha Financial Markets Consulting. Ricardo's average media sentiment score of 0.48 beat Alpha Financial Markets Consulting's score of 0.00 indicating that Ricardo is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Ricardo	Neutral
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting	Neutral

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, RCDO or AFM?

Alpha Financial Markets Consulting has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ricardo. Alpha Financial Markets Consulting is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ricardo, 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
Ricardo	£469.99M	0.56	£693.06K	£1.14	376.90
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting	£233.62M	0.00	£15.85M	£0.13	N/A

Do analysts recommend RCDO or AFM?

Ricardo presently has a consensus price target of GBX 730, suggesting a potential upside of 70.56%. Given Ricardo's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Ricardo is more favorable than Alpha Financial Markets Consulting.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ricardo	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Alpha Financial Markets Consulting	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Is RCDO or AFM a better dividend stock?

Ricardo pays an annual dividend of GBX 13 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Alpha Financial Markets Consulting pays an annual dividend of GBX 14 per share. Ricardo pays out 1,144.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Alpha Financial Markets Consulting pays out 10,769.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ricardo is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Ricardo beats Alpha Financial Markets Consulting on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.