MGT Capital Investments (OTCMKTS:MGTI) & Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) Critical Review

Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) and MGT Capital Investments (OTCMKTS:MGTI) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Synchrony Financial and MGT Capital Investments, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Synchrony Financial	1	8	12	1	2.59
MGT Capital Investments	0	0	0	0	N/A

Synchrony Financial currently has a consensus target price of $56.25, suggesting a potential downside of 0.30%. Given Synchrony Financial’s higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Synchrony Financial is more favorable than MGT Capital Investments.

Volatility and Risk

Synchrony Financial has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MGT Capital Investments has a beta of 2.76, suggesting that its share price is 176% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Synchrony Financial and MGT Capital Investments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Synchrony Financial	13.52%	16.06%	1.86%
MGT Capital Investments	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

96.5% of Synchrony Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of Synchrony Financial shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of MGT Capital Investments shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Synchrony Financial and MGT Capital Investments”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Synchrony Financial	$15.98 billion	1.42	$2.24 billion	$6.97	8.09
MGT Capital Investments	$400,000.00	0.57	-$6.13 million	N/A	N/A

Synchrony Financial has higher revenue and earnings than MGT Capital Investments.

Summary

Synchrony Financial beats MGT Capital Investments on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Synchrony Financial

Synchrony Financial, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer financial services company in the United States. It provides credit products, such as credit cards, commercial credit products, and consumer installment loans. The company also offers private label credit cards, dual co-brand and general purpose credit cards, short- and long-term installment loans, and consumer banking products; and deposit products, including certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, money market accounts, and savings accounts, and sweep and affinity deposits, as well as accepts deposits through third-party securities brokerage firms. In addition, it provides debt cancellation products to its credit card customers through online, mobile, and direct mail; and healthcare payments and financing solutions under the CareCredit and Walgreens brands; payments and financing solutions in the apparel, specialty retail, outdoor, music, and luxury industries, such as American Eagle, Dick's Sporting Goods, Guitar Center, Kawasaki, Pandora, Polaris, Suzuki, and Sweetwater. The company offers its credit products through programs established with a group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations, and healthcare service providers; and deposit products through various channels, such as digital and print. It serves digital, health and wellness, retail, home, auto, telecommunications, jewelry, pets, and other industries. The company was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.

About MGT Capital Investments

MGT Capital Investments, Inc. engages in cryptocurrency mining business in the United States. The company owns and manages a bitcoin mining facility in LaFayette, Georgia. It also leases space to third parties and self-mining operations; and provides hosting services for third-party owners of miners. The company was incorporated in 1977 and is headquartered in Lafayette, Georgia.