Head to Head Analysis: Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund (NYSE:ACV) and St. James’s Place (OTCMKTS:STJPF)

St. James’s Place (OTCMKTS:STJPF) and Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund (NYSE:ACV) are both financial services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Dividends

St. James’s Place pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund pays an annual dividend of $2.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 11.3%. St. James’s Place pays out 56.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund pays out 130.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Profitability

This table compares St. James’s Place and Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
St. James’s Place	N/A	N/A	N/A
Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for St. James’s Place and Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
St. James’s Place	0	0	1	0	3.00
Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund	0	0	0	0	0.00

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares St. James’s Place and Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
St. James’s Place	N/A	N/A	N/A	$0.28	38.74
Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund	$86.24 million	N/A	N/A	$1.65	11.58

Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than St. James’s Place, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

46.4% of St. James’s Place shares are owned by institutional investors. 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.

Summary

St. James’s Place beats Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund on 5 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About St. James’s Place

St. James's Place plc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm launches and manages equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds for its clients. It invests in public equity and fixed income market across the globe. The firm was formerly known as St. James's Place Capital plc. St. James's Place plc was founded in 1991 and is based in Cirencester, United Kingdom.

About Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund

Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund is a closed-ended balanced mutual fund launched and managed by Allianz Global Investors Fund Management LLC. The fund is co-managed by Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC. It invests in the public equity and fixed income markets. The fund primarily invests in diversified portfolio of convertible securities, income-producing equity securities, and income-producing debt and other instruments of varying maturities. It employs fundamental analysis along with bottom-up stock picking approach. Virtus Diversified Income & Convertible Fund was formed In May 27, 2015 and is domiciled in United States.