Federated Hermes (FHI) Competitors

Houlihan Lokey (NYSE:HLI) and Federated Hermes (NYSE:FHI) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, media sentiment, profitability, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations and community ranking.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer HLI or FHI?

Houlihan Lokey received 268 more outperform votes than Federated Hermes when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.20% of users gave Houlihan Lokey an outperform vote while only 27.40% of users gave Federated Hermes an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Houlihan Lokey	Outperform Votes 288 62.20%	Underperform Votes 175 37.80%
Federated Hermes	Outperform Votes 20 27.40%	Underperform Votes 53 72.60%

Is HLI or FHI a better dividend stock?

Houlihan Lokey pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Federated Hermes pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.8%. Houlihan Lokey pays out 55.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Federated Hermes pays out 35.2% 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. Houlihan Lokey has raised its dividend for 8 consecutive years and Federated Hermes has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Federated Hermes is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Is HLI or FHI more profitable?

Federated Hermes has a net margin of 18.75% compared to Federated Hermes' net margin of 14.64%. Houlihan Lokey's return on equity of 27.00% beat Federated Hermes' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Houlihan Lokey	14.64%	18.08%	10.69%
Federated Hermes	18.75%	27.00%	14.62%

Do analysts rate HLI or FHI?

Houlihan Lokey currently has a consensus target price of $124.33, suggesting a potential downside of 4.78%. Federated Hermes has a consensus target price of $38.29, suggesting a potential upside of 17.30%. Given Houlihan Lokey's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Federated Hermes is more favorable than Houlihan Lokey.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Houlihan Lokey	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33
Federated Hermes	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in HLI or FHI?

78.1% of Houlihan Lokey shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 75.9% of Federated Hermes shares are owned by institutional investors. 26.0% of Houlihan Lokey shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.7% of Federated Hermes shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media prefer HLI or FHI?

In the previous week, Houlihan Lokey had 6 more articles in the media than Federated Hermes. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Houlihan Lokey and 2 mentions for Federated Hermes. Houlihan Lokey's average media sentiment score of 1.63 beat Federated Hermes' score of 1.16 indicating that Federated Hermes is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Houlihan Lokey	7 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Federated Hermes	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Which has better valuation & earnings, HLI or FHI?

Federated Hermes has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Houlihan Lokey. Federated Hermes is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Houlihan Lokey, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Houlihan Lokey	$1.91B	4.68	$280.30M	$4.11	31.77
Federated Hermes	$1.61B	1.71	$298.98M	$3.52	9.27

Which has more risk and volatility, HLI or FHI?

Houlihan Lokey has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Federated Hermes has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Federated Hermes beats Houlihan Lokey on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.