Qudian (QD) Competitors

Qudian (NYSE:QD) and Nicolet Bankshares (NYSE:NIC) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, community ranking, risk and valuation.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of QD or NIC?

8.1% of Qudian shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.1% of Nicolet Bankshares shares are held by institutional investors. 25.7% of Qudian shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 16.4% of Nicolet Bankshares shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has more volatility and risk, QD or NIC?

Qudian has a beta of 0.47, indicating that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nicolet Bankshares has a beta of 0.69, indicating that its share price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is QD or NIC more profitable?

Nicolet Bankshares has a net margin of 23.83% compared to Qudian's net margin of 18.32%. Nicolet Bankshares' return on equity of 10.95% beat Qudian's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Qudian	18.32%	0.36%	0.34%
Nicolet Bankshares	23.83%	10.95%	1.41%

Do analysts prefer QD or NIC?

Nicolet Bankshares has a consensus target price of $119.25, suggesting a potential downside of 1.54%. Given Nicolet Bankshares' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Nicolet Bankshares is more favorable than Qudian.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Qudian	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00
Nicolet Bankshares	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.25

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in QD or NIC?

Qudian received 473 more outperform votes than Nicolet Bankshares when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 67.81% of users gave Qudian an outperform vote while only 10.71% of users gave Nicolet Bankshares an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Qudian	Outperform Votes 476 67.81%	Underperform Votes 226 32.19%
Nicolet Bankshares	Outperform Votes 3 10.71%	Underperform Votes 25 89.29%

Does the media prefer QD or NIC?

In the previous week, Nicolet Bankshares had 6 more articles in the media than Qudian. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Nicolet Bankshares and 1 mentions for Qudian. Qudian's average media sentiment score of 1.24 beat Nicolet Bankshares' score of 1.12 indicating that Qudian is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Qudian	0 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Nicolet Bankshares	6 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, QD or NIC?

Nicolet Bankshares has higher revenue and earnings than Qudian. Nicolet Bankshares is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Qudian, 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
Qudian	$216.43M	2.53	$5.51M	$0.07	39.00
Nicolet Bankshares	$356.32M	5.17	$124.06M	$8.29	14.61

Summary

Nicolet Bankshares beats Qudian on 13 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.