Comparing AEON Financial Service (OTCMKTS:AEOJF) & Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS)

AEON Financial Service (OTCMKTS:AEOJF) and Discover Financial Services (NYSE:DFS) are both financial services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for AEON Financial Service and Discover Financial Services, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AEON Financial Service	0	0	0	0	N/A
Discover Financial Services	0	12	7	0	2.37

Discover Financial Services has a consensus target price of $138.81, suggesting a potential downside of 8.25%. Given Discover Financial Services’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Discover Financial Services is more favorable than AEON Financial Service.

Profitability

This table compares AEON Financial Service and Discover Financial Services’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AEON Financial Service	N/A	N/A	N/A
Discover Financial Services	13.78%	21.38%	2.10%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AEON Financial Service and Discover Financial Services”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AEON Financial Service	N/A	N/A	N/A	$143.79	0.06
Discover Financial Services	$17.40 billion	2.18	$2.94 billion	$12.39	12.21

Discover Financial Services has higher revenue and earnings than AEON Financial Service. AEON Financial Service is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Discover Financial Services, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

23.5% of AEON Financial Service shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.9% of Discover Financial Services shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Discover Financial Services shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

AEON Financial Service pays an annual dividend of $47.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 514.9%. Discover Financial Services pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. AEON Financial Service pays out 33.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Discover Financial Services pays out 22.6% 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. Discover Financial Services has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years.

Summary

Discover Financial Services beats AEON Financial Service on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AEON Financial Service

AEON Financial Service Co., Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides various financial services in Japan. The company operates Retail, Solutions, China Area, Mekong Area, and Malay Area segments. It is involved in banking, short-term insurance, bank agency, ATM, housing and other loans, property leases, installment sales, life and non-life insurance agency, life insurance sales, loan purchases, credit card purchase contracts, collection and payment agency, credit card, and electronic money businesses, as well as bank and business management activities. In addition, the company engages in the management, collection, and purchase of specified monetary claims, and backup servicing businesses. AEON Financial Service Co., Ltd. was incorporated in 1981 and is based in Tokyo, Japan.

About Discover Financial Services

Discover Financial Services, through its subsidiaries, provides digital banking products and services, and payment services in the United States. It operates in two segments, Digital Banking and Payment Services. The Digital Banking segment offers Discover-branded credit cards to individuals; personal loans, home loans, and other consumer lending; and direct-to-consumer deposit products comprising savings accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, IRA certificates of deposit, IRA savings accounts and checking accounts, and sweep accounts. The Payment Services segment operates the PULSE to access automated teller machines, debit, and electronic funds transfer network; and Diners Club International, a payments network that issues Diners Club branded charge cards and/or provides card acceptance services, as well as offers payment transaction processing and settlement services. The company was incorporated in 1960 and is based in Riverwoods, Illinois.