Exela Technologies (NASDAQ:XELA) and comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Exela Technologies and comScore, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
|---|
| Exela Technologies | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
| comScore | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
Exela Technologies currently has a consensus target price of $4.00, suggesting a potential upside of 161.44%. comScore has a consensus target price of $5.00, suggesting a potential upside of 12.11%. Given Exela Technologies' higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Exela Technologies is more favorable than comScore.
Profitability
This table compares Exela Technologies and comScore's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
|---|
| Exela Technologies | -16.71% | N/A | -17.45% |
| comScore | -20.18% | -29.01% | -9.98% |
Volatility and Risk
Exela Technologies has a beta of 1.74, indicating that its share price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, comScore has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Exela Technologies and comScore's revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
|---|
| Exela Technologies | $1.29 billion | 0.07 | $-178,530,000.00 | ($3.66) | -0.42 |
| comScore | $356.04 million | 1.01 | $-47,920,000.00 | ($0.67) | -6.66 |
comScore has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Exela Technologies. comScore is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Exela Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
12.9% of Exela Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.6% of comScore shares are held by institutional investors. 49.6% of Exela Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of comScore shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Exela Technologies beats comScore on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
