Reviewing Siebert Financial (NASDAQ:SIEB) & Merriman (OTCMKTS:MERR)

Merriman (OTCMKTS:MERR) and Siebert Financial (NASDAQ:SIEB) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.5% of Siebert Financial shares are held by institutional investors. 63.0% of Merriman shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 46.0% of Siebert Financial shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Merriman and Siebert Financial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Merriman	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Siebert Financial	$83.05 million	1.37	$13.29 million	$0.24	11.71

Siebert Financial has higher revenue and earnings than Merriman.

Profitability

This table compares Merriman and Siebert Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Merriman	N/A	N/A	N/A
Siebert Financial	11.00%	10.78%	1.73%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Merriman and Siebert Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Merriman	0	0	0	0	0.00
Siebert Financial	0	1	0	0	2.00

Given Merriman’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Merriman is more favorable than Siebert Financial.

Summary

Siebert Financial beats Merriman on 6 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Merriman

Merriman Holdings, Inc., through its subsidiary, Merriman Capital, Inc., provides capital market advisory and research, corporate, and investment banking services primarily in the United States and Canada. The company's investment banking services include corporate financing services, such as initial public offerings, secondary offerings, and private placements services; and strategic advisory services comprise transaction-specific advice regarding mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, spin-offs, and privatizations, as well as general strategic advice. It also offers institutional brokerage services, including institutional sales trading and equity execution, and options execution services to institutional clients. In addition, the company executes securities transactions for money managers, mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance companies, and pension and profit-sharing plans; and provides integrated research and trading solutions, as well as capital markets advisory services. It primarily serves institutional investors and corporate clients. The company was formerly known as Merriman Curhan Ford Group, Inc. and changed its name to Merriman Holdings, Inc. in August 2010. Merriman Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Siebert Financial

Siebert Financial Corp., through its subsidiaries, engages in the retail brokerage and investment advisory businesses in the United States and Internationally. It offers self-directed trading, market making and fixed income investment, stock borrow, stock loan, equity compensation plans, wealth management, and financial advisory services; independent retail execution services; and retail customer services. The company also offers self-directed retirement accounts, as well as lends customers a portion of the market value of marginable securities held in the customer's account. In addition, the company provides data technology platform that offers various services, such as email and messaging, market data systems and third party trading systems, business productivity tools, and customer relationship management systems. Further, it offers a Robo-Advisor platform that provides clients with an automated wealth management solution; and various insurance products, such as fixed annuities, personal insurance, property and casualty insurance, natural disaster insurance, and life and disability. Siebert Financial Corp. was incorporated in 1934 and is headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida.