Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) vs. Ellington Financial (NYSE:EFC) Head-To-Head Analysis

Altisource Portfolio Solutions (NASDAQ:ASPS) and Ellington Financial (NYSE:EFC) are both small-cap 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Altisource Portfolio Solutions and Ellington Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	1	0	0	0	1.00
Ellington Financial	0	3	5	0	2.63

Ellington Financial has a consensus price target of $14.46, indicating a potential upside of 5.88%. Given Ellington Financial’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Ellington Financial is more favorable than Altisource Portfolio Solutions.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.4% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.6% of Ellington Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of Altisource Portfolio Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Ellington Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Altisource Portfolio Solutions has a beta of 0.17, meaning that its stock price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ellington Financial has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Altisource Portfolio Solutions and Ellington Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	0.04%	N/A	-3.73%
Ellington Financial	89.04%	14.55%	1.15%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Altisource Portfolio Solutions and Ellington Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Altisource Portfolio Solutions	$160.13 million	0.45	-$35.64 million	($1.94)	-3.40
Ellington Financial	$136.41 million	10.74	$145.86 million	$1.34	10.19

Ellington Financial has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Altisource Portfolio Solutions. Altisource Portfolio Solutions is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ellington Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Ellington Financial beats Altisource Portfolio Solutions on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Altisource Portfolio Solutions

Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. operates as an integrated service provider and marketplace for the real estate and mortgage industries in the United States and internationally. It operates through Servicer and Real Estate, and Origination segments. The Servicer and Real Estate segment offers property preservation, inspection, title insurance and settlement, real estate valuation, foreclosure trustee, and residential and commercial construction inspection and risk mitigation services. This segment provides Hubzu, an online real estate auction platform, as well as real estate auction, real estate brokerage, and asset management services; Equator, a software-as-a-service technology to manage real estate owned, short sales, foreclosure, bankruptcy, and eviction processes; a vendor invoicing and payment system; RentRange, a single and multi-family rental data, analytics, and rent-based valuation solution; REALSynergy, a commercial loan servicing platform; and NestRange, an automated residential valuation model and analytics solution. The Origination segment offers loan fulfillment, certification and certification insurance services, management services. In addition, it provides Lendors One Loan Automation, a marketplace to order services and a tool to automate components of the loan manufacturing process; TrelixAI, a technology to manage the workflow and automate components of the loan fulfillment, pre and post close quality, and service transfer processes; and ADMS, a document management and data analytics delivery platform. The company serves financial institutions, government-sponsored enterprises, banks, asset managers, servicers, investors, property management firms, real estate brokerages, insurance companies, mortgage bankers, originators, and correspondent and private money lenders. Altisource Portfolio Solutions S.A. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

About Ellington Financial

Ellington Financial Inc., through its subsidiary, Ellington Financial Operating Partnership LLC, acquires and manages mortgage-related, consumer-related, corporate-related, and other financial assets in the United States. The company acquires and manages residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) backed by prime jumbo, Alt-A, manufactured housing, and subprime mortgage; RMBS for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by the U.S. government agency or the U.S. government-sponsored entity; residential mortgage loans; commercial mortgage-backed securities; and commercial mortgage loans and other commercial real estate debt. It also provides collateralized loan obligations; mortgage-related and non-mortgage-related derivatives; corporate debt and equity securities; corporate loans; and other strategic investments; and consumer loans and asset-backed securities backed by consumer and commercial assets. The company qualifies as a real estate investment trust (REIT) for federal income tax purposes. As a REIT, it intends to distribute at least 90% of its taxable income as dividends to shareholders. Ellington Financial LLC was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.