Critical Survey: Omnicom Group (NYSE:OMC) versus Lendway (NASDAQ:LDWY)

Omnicom Group (NYSE:OMC) and Lendway (NASDAQ:LDWY) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.0% of Omnicom Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.6% of Lendway shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Omnicom Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.9% of Lendway shares are owned by 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.

Volatility & Risk

Omnicom Group has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lendway has a beta of 1.94, suggesting that its share price is 94% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Omnicom Group and Lendway, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Omnicom Group	1	2	7	0	2.60
Lendway	0	0	0	0	N/A

Omnicom Group currently has a consensus price target of $103.40, indicating a potential upside of 11.48%. Given Omnicom Group’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Omnicom Group is more favorable than Lendway.

Profitability

This table compares Omnicom Group and Lendway’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Omnicom Group	9.96%	38.23%	5.73%
Lendway	N/A	-1.73%	-1.40%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Omnicom Group and Lendway’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Omnicom Group	$14.69 billion	1.24	$1.39 billion	$7.40	12.53
Lendway	$18.80 million	0.56	$2.41 million	$1.33	4.51

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

Summary

Omnicom Group beats Lendway on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Omnicom Group

Omnicom Group Inc., together with its subsidiaries, offers advertising, marketing, and corporate communications services. It provides a range of services in the areas of advertising and media, precision marketing, commerce and branding, experiential, execution and support, public relations, and healthcare. The company's services include advertising, branding, content marketing, corporate social responsibility consulting, crisis communications, custom publishing, data analytics, database management, digital/direct marketing and post-production, digital transformation consulting, entertainment marketing, experiential marketing, field marketing, sales support, financial/corporate business-to-business advertising, graphic arts/digital imaging, healthcare marketing and communications, and instore design services. Its services also comprise interactive marketing, investor relations, marketing research, media planning and buying, retail media planning and buying, merchandising and point of sale, mobile marketing, multi-cultural marketing, non-profit marketing, organizational communications, package design, product placement, promotional marketing, public affairs, public relations, retail marketing, retail media and e-commerce, search engine marketing, shopper marketing, social media marketing, and sports and event marketing services. It operates in the North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and the Asia Pacific. The company was incorporated in 1944 and is based in New York, New York.

About Lendway

Lendway, Inc. operates as a specialty agricultural and finance company focusing on making and managing its agricultural investments in the United States and internationally. It owns and operates FarmlandCredit.com, a non-bank lending business that seeks to purchase existing loans and/or originate and fund new loans domestically. The company was formerly known as Insignia Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Lendway, Inc. in August 2023. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.