Liquidity Services (LQDT) Competitors

Liquidity Services (NASDAQ:LQDT) and Yelp (NYSE:YELP) are both internet software & services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Do analysts prefer LQDT or YELP?

Liquidity Services presently has a consensus price target of $38.50, suggesting a potential upside of 62.86%. Yelp has a consensus price target of $34.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.73%. Given Liquidity Services' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Liquidity Services is more favorable than Yelp.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Liquidity Services	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Yelp	2 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.71

Which has more risk and volatility, LQDT or YELP?

Liquidity Services has a beta of 1.14, meaning that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Yelp has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media prefer LQDT or YELP?

In the previous week, Yelp had 20 more articles in the media than Liquidity Services. MarketBeat recorded 23 mentions for Yelp and 3 mentions for Liquidity Services. Yelp's average media sentiment score of 0.84 beat Liquidity Services' score of 0.63 indicating that Yelp is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Liquidity Services	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	2 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Yelp	10 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	4 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is LQDT or YELP more profitable?

Yelp has a net margin of 9.95% compared to Liquidity Services' net margin of 6.31%. Liquidity Services' return on equity of 20.89% beat Yelp's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Liquidity Services	6.31%	20.89%	11.33%
Yelp	9.95%	19.42%	14.62%

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of LQDT or YELP?

71.2% of Liquidity Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.1% of Yelp shares are held by institutional investors. 28.4% of Liquidity Services shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 7.4% of Yelp shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has better valuation and earnings, LQDT or YELP?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Liquidity Services	$363.32M	2.03	$19.99M	$0.79	29.92
Yelp	$1.41B	1.58	$132.85M	$2.08	16.81

Summary

Liquidity Services and Yelp tied by winning 8 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.