Reviewing Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) and U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW)

U.S. Global Investors (NASDAQ:GROW) and Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

23.6% of U.S. Global Investors shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.1% of Apollo Global Management shares are held by institutional investors. 19.2% of U.S. Global Investors shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.5% of Apollo Global Management shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

U.S. Global Investors has a beta of 1.83, meaning that its share price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apollo Global Management has a beta of 1.62, meaning that its share price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

U.S. Global Investors pays an annual dividend of $0.09 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Apollo Global Management pays an annual dividend of $1.85 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. U.S. Global Investors pays out 90.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Apollo Global Management pays out 20.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for U.S. Global Investors and Apollo Global Management, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
U.S. Global Investors	0	0	0	0	N/A
Apollo Global Management	0	4	15	0	2.79

Apollo Global Management has a consensus price target of $138.06, indicating a potential downside of 4.80%. Given Apollo Global Management’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Apollo Global Management is more favorable than U.S. Global Investors.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares U.S. Global Investors and Apollo Global Management”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
U.S. Global Investors	$10.98 million	3.08	$1.33 million	$0.10	24.70
Apollo Global Management	$26.70 billion	3.09	$5.05 billion	$9.03	16.07

Apollo Global Management has higher revenue and earnings than U.S. Global Investors. Apollo Global Management is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than U.S. Global Investors, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares U.S. Global Investors and Apollo Global Management’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
U.S. Global Investors	12.14%	2.66%	2.51%
Apollo Global Management	21.90%	16.98%	1.23%

Summary

Apollo Global Management beats U.S. Global Investors on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About U.S. Global Investors

U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. It primarily provides its services to investment companies. The firm is a large advisory firm, an investment adviser to an investment company which provides portfolio management for investment companies. The firm manages and launches equity/balanced funds, fixed income funds and other funds. It also manages hedge funds. The firm primarily invests in no-load mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs). U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is based in San Antonio, Texas.

About Apollo Global Management

Apollo Global Management, Inc. is a private equity firm specializing in investments in credit, private equity, infrastructure, secondaries and real estate markets. The firm prefers to invest in private and public markets. The firm’s private equity investments include traditional buyouts, recapitalization, distressed buyouts and debt investments in real estate, corporate partner buyouts, distressed asset, corporate carve-outs, middle market, growth, venture capital, turnaround, bridge, corporate restructuring, special situation, acquisition, and industry consolidation transactions. For credit strategies, the firm focuses to invest in multi-sector credit, semi-liquid credit, direct lending, first lien, unitranche, whole loans and private credit. The firm provides its services to endowment and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors. It manages client focused portfolios. The firm launches and manages hedge funds for its clients. It also manages real estate funds and private equity funds for its clients. The firm invests in the fixed income and alternative investment markets across the globe. Its fixed income investments include income-oriented senior loans, bonds, collateralized loan obligations, structured credit, opportunistic credit, non-performing loans, distressed debt, mezzanine debt, and value oriented fixed income securities. The firm seeks to invest in chemicals, commodities, consumer and retail, oil and gas, metals, mining, agriculture, commodities, distribution and transportation, financial and business services, manufacturing and industrial, media distribution, cable, entertainment and leisure, telecom, technology, natural resources, energy, packaging and materials, and satellite and wireless industries. It also focuses on clean energy, sustainable industry, climate solutions, energy transition, industrial decarbonization, sustainable mobility, sustainable resource use, and sustainable real estate. It seeks to invest in companies based in across Africa, Asia, North America with a focus on United States, Western Europe and Europe. It employs a combination of contrarian, value, and distressed strategies to make its investments. The firm seeks to make investments in the range of $75 million and $1500 million. The firm seeks to invest in companies with Enterprise value between $750 million to $2500 million. The firm conducts in-house research to create its investment portfolio. It seeks to acquire minority and majority positions in its portfolio companies. Apollo Global Management, Inc. was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in New York, New York with additional offices in North America, Asia, Africa and Europe.