Critical Contrast: ArrowMark Financial (NASDAQ:BANX) and Abacus Life (NASDAQ:ABL)

Abacus Life (NASDAQ:ABL) and ArrowMark Financial (NASDAQ:BANX) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

24.9% of ArrowMark Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 79.2% of Abacus Life shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of ArrowMark Financial shares are owned 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 Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Abacus Life and ArrowMark Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Abacus Life	0	0	5	1	3.17
ArrowMark Financial	0	0	0	0	0.00

Abacus Life presently has a consensus target price of $14.30, suggesting a potential upside of 93.50%. Given Abacus Life’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Abacus Life is more favorable than ArrowMark Financial.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Abacus Life and ArrowMark Financial”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Abacus Life	$102.41 million	6.11	$9.52 million	($0.18)	-41.06
ArrowMark Financial	$21.34 million	7.03	$12.63 million	N/A	N/A

ArrowMark Financial has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Abacus Life.

Profitability

This table compares Abacus Life and ArrowMark Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Abacus Life	-11.65%	12.88%	6.51%
ArrowMark Financial	N/A	N/A	N/A

Volatility and Risk

Abacus Life has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its stock price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ArrowMark Financial has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Abacus Life beats ArrowMark Financial on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Abacus Life

Abacus Life, Inc. operates as an alternative asset manager specializing in life insurance products. It purchases life insurance policies from consumers seeking liquidity and manages policies over time via trading, holding, and/or servicing. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Orlando, Florida.

About ArrowMark Financial

ArrowMark Financial Corp. is a closed-end balanced mutual fund launched and managed by ArrowMark Asset Management, LLC. It invests in public equity and fixed income markets of global region. For its equity portion, the fund invests in stocks of companies operating across financials, banks sectors. It invests in growth and value stocks of companies across diversified market capitalization. For its fixed income portion, the fund invests in debt and subordinated debt, structured notes and securities, regulatory capital securities which are rated below investment grade. ArrowMark Financial Corp. was formed on February 7, 2013 and is domiciled in the United States.