VeriSign (VRSN) Competitors

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) and VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, community ranking, profitability, risk, media sentiment, earnings and valuation.

Is EBAY or VRSN more profitable?

VeriSign has a net margin of 54.74% compared to VeriSign's net margin of 27.36%. VeriSign's return on equity of 29.16% beat eBay's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
eBay	27.36%	29.16%	8.09%
VeriSign	54.74%	-46.56%	43.49%

Which has more risk and volatility, EBAY or VRSN?

eBay has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VeriSign has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of EBAY or VRSN?

87.5% of eBay shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.9% of VeriSign shares are held by institutional investors. 0.2% of eBay shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of VeriSign shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer EBAY or VRSN?

eBay received 1387 more outperform votes than VeriSign when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 65.92% of users gave eBay an outperform vote while only 62.30% of users gave VeriSign an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
eBay	Outperform Votes 1772 65.92%	Underperform Votes 916 34.08%
VeriSign	Outperform Votes 385 62.30%	Underperform Votes 233 37.70%

Which has better earnings & valuation, EBAY or VRSN?

eBay has higher revenue and earnings than VeriSign. eBay is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than VeriSign, 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
eBay	$10.11B	2.63	$2.77B	$5.22	9.85
VeriSign	$1.49B	12.25	$817.60M	$7.92	23.07

Do analysts prefer EBAY or VRSN?

eBay presently has a consensus price target of $49.21, indicating a potential downside of 4.15%. VeriSign has a consensus price target of $240.50, indicating a potential upside of 31.65%. Given eBay's stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe VeriSign is more favorable than eBay.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
eBay	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.29
VeriSign	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the media refer more to EBAY or VRSN?

In the previous week, VeriSign had 3 more articles in the media than eBay. MarketBeat recorded 22 mentions for VeriSign and 19 mentions for eBay. eBay's average media sentiment score of 0.85 beat VeriSign's score of 0.54 indicating that VeriSign is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
eBay	9 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	7 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
VeriSign	7 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	5 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

VeriSign beats eBay on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.