ECN Capital (ECN) Competitors

First National Financial (TSE:FN) and ECN Capital (TSE:ECN) are both financial services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, media sentiment, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and institutional ownership.

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in FN or ECN?

4.7% of First National Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.6% of ECN Capital shares are owned by institutional investors. 71.5% of First National Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of ECN Capital shares are owned by company 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.

Do analysts recommend FN or ECN?

First National Financial currently has a consensus target price of C$45.40, suggesting a potential downside of 5.61%. ECN Capital has a consensus target price of C$3.42, suggesting a potential upside of 16.61%. Given ECN Capital's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe ECN Capital is more favorable than First National Financial.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
First National Financial	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.67
ECN Capital	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00

Is FN or ECN a better dividend stock?

First National Financial pays an annual dividend of C$2.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.2%. ECN Capital pays an annual dividend of C$0.03 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. First National Financial pays out 80.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. ECN Capital pays out 105.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. First National Financial is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, FN or ECN?

First National Financial has higher revenue and earnings than ECN Capital. First National Financial is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ECN Capital, 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
First National Financial	C$602.36M	4.79	C$185.07M	C$3.07	15.67
ECN Capital	C$230.75M	3.57	-C$32.06M	C$0.03	107.90

Which has more volatility and risk, FN or ECN?

First National Financial has a beta of 0.687671, indicating that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ECN Capital has a beta of 1.367048, indicating that its stock price is 37% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor FN or ECN?

In the previous week, ECN Capital had 1 more articles in the media than First National Financial. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for ECN Capital and 1 mentions for First National Financial. First National Financial's average media sentiment score of 0.76 beat ECN Capital's score of 0.50 indicating that First National Financial is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
First National Financial	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
ECN Capital	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is FN or ECN more profitable?

First National Financial has a net margin of 10.70% compared to ECN Capital's net margin of -24.40%. First National Financial's return on equity of 24.41% beat ECN Capital's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
First National Financial	10.70%	24.41%	0.48%
ECN Capital	-24.40%	-21.93%	-4.85%

Summary

First National Financial beats ECN Capital on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.