Nelnet (NNI) Competitors

SLM (NASDAQ:SLM) and Nelnet (NYSE:NNI) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of SLM or NNI?

98.9% of SLM shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.5% of Nelnet shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of SLM shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 50.9% of Nelnet shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, SLM or NNI?

SLM has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Nelnet. Nelnet is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SLM, 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
SLM	$1.76B	3.59	$608.33M	$1.99	15.24
Nelnet	$2.14B	2.16	$184.04M	$9.03	14.06

Do analysts recommend SLM or NNI?

SLM presently has a consensus price target of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.44%. Given SLM's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe SLM is more favorable than Nelnet.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SLM	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	9 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.90
Nelnet	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Is SLM or NNI more profitable?

SLM has a net margin of 15.46% compared to Nelnet's net margin of 14.86%. SLM's return on equity of 21.93% beat Nelnet's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SLM	15.46%	21.93%	1.49%
Nelnet	14.86%	10.09%	2.42%

Does the media refer more to SLM or NNI?

In the previous week, SLM had 2 more articles in the media than Nelnet. MarketBeat recorded 9 mentions for SLM and 7 mentions for Nelnet. SLM's average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Nelnet's score of 0.67 indicating that SLM is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
SLM	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Nelnet	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is SLM or NNI a better dividend stock?

SLM pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Nelnet pays an annual dividend of $1.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. SLM pays out 26.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nelnet pays out 12.4% 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. SLM has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. SLM is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Which has more risk and volatility, SLM or NNI?

SLM has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nelnet has a beta of 0.9, meaning that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SLM beats Nelnet on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.