Financial Review: Aiful (OTCMKTS:AIFLY) vs. Regional Management (NYSE:RM)

Regional Management (NYSE:RM) and Aiful (OTCMKTS:AIFLY) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Regional Management and Aiful’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Regional Management	$551.40 million	0.49	$15.96 million	$1.64	16.66
Aiful	N/A	N/A	N/A	$19.42	0.07

Regional Management has higher revenue and earnings than Aiful. Aiful is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Regional Management, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Regional Management and Aiful’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Regional Management	2.89%	8.85%	1.64%
Aiful	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.9% of Regional Management shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.8% of Regional Management shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Regional Management and Aiful, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Regional Management	0	1	0	0	2.00
Aiful	0	0	0	0	N/A

Regional Management currently has a consensus target price of $30.00, indicating a potential upside of 10.42%. Given Regional Management’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Regional Management is more favorable than Aiful.

Summary

Regional Management beats Aiful on 8 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Regional Management

Regional Management Corp., a diversified consumer finance company, provides various installment loan products primarily to customers with limited access to consumer credit from banks, thrifts, credit card companies, and other lenders in the United States. It offers small and large installment loans; and retail loans to finance the purchase of furniture, appliances, and other retail products. The company also provides insurance products, including credit life, credit accident and health, credit property, vehicle single interest, and credit involuntary unemployment insurance; collateral protection insurance; and property insurance, as well as reinsurance products. In addition, its loans are sourced through branches, centrally-managed direct mail campaigns, and digital partners, as well as its consumer website. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Greer, South Carolina.

About Aiful

Aiful Corporation engages in the consumer finance and credit guarantee business in Japan. The company offers unsecured and small business loans; and credit card, prepaid card, credit guarantee, debt collection, venture capital, receiving agent, corporate turnaround and restructuring, warehouse, document management, and leasing services, as well as used car and medical loans. It also provides postpay settlement, factoring, and installment credit sales services. The company was formerly known as Marutaka, Inc. and changed its name to Aiful Corporation in May 1982. Aiful Corporation was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.