Critical Survey: Gentera (OTCMKTS:CMPRF) and American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Gentera (OTCMKTS:CMPRF) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

25.2% of Gentera shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.3% of American Express shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of American Express shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Gentera and American Express, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gentera	0	0	0	0	N/A
American Express	4	15	8	0	2.15

American Express has a consensus price target of $242.33, indicating a potential downside of 12.45%. Given American Express’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe American Express is more favorable than Gentera.

Profitability

This table compares Gentera and American Express’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gentera	N/A	N/A	N/A
American Express	15.53%	32.94%	3.56%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Gentera and American Express”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gentera	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.95	0.61
American Express	$63.16 billion	3.15	$8.37 billion	$12.14	22.80

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

Dividends

Gentera pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 92.8%. American Express pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Gentera pays out 56.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. American Express pays out 23.1% 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.

Summary

American Express beats Gentera on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gentera

Gentera, S. A. B. de C. V. provides various financial products and services in Mexico and Peru. The company offers individual and group credit, savings, insurance, and transactional channels services to entrepreneurs and microentrepreneurs. It also provides insurance agent services; and personal loans; as well as operates as a bank commission agent administrator that offers financial operations, payment of services, and cellphone top-ups services. The company was formerly known as Financiera Compartamos, S.A. B. de C. V. Gentera, S. A. B. de C. V. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

About American Express

American Express Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated payments company in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Internationally. It operates through four segments: U.S. Consumer Services, Commercial Services, International Card Services, and Global Merchant and Network Services. The company’s products and services include credit card, charge card, banking, and other payment and financing products; network services; expense management products and services; and travel and lifestyle services. It also provides merchant acquisition and processing, servicing and settlement, point-of-sale marketing, and information products and services for merchants; and fraud prevention services, as well as the design and operation of customer loyalty programs. In addition, the company operates lounges at airports under Centurion Lounge brand name. It sells its products and services to consumers, small businesses, mid-sized companies, and large corporations through mobile and online applications, affiliate marketing, customer referral programs, third-party service providers and business partners, direct mail, telephone, in-house sales teams, and direct response advertising. American Express Company was founded in 1850 and is headquartered in New York, New York.