Accolade (NASDAQ:ACCD) & Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) Critical Contrast

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) and Accolade (NASDAQ:ACCD) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings for Alibaba Group and Accolade, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alibaba Group	0	2	13	0	2.87
Accolade	0	3	11	0	2.79

Alibaba Group currently has a consensus price target of $114.07, indicating a potential upside of 38.63%. Accolade has a consensus price target of $8.96, indicating a potential upside of 157.42%. Given Accolade’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Accolade is more favorable than Alibaba Group.

Profitability

This table compares Alibaba Group and Accolade’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alibaba Group	8.98%	12.28%	7.44%
Accolade	-18.16%	-18.43%	-10.35%

Risk & Volatility

Alibaba Group has a beta of 0.3, suggesting that its share price is 70% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Accolade has a beta of 2.07, suggesting that its share price is 107% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Alibaba Group and Accolade”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alibaba Group	$961.96 billion	0.20	$11.08 billion	$4.93	16.69
Accolade	$441.03 million	0.64	-$99.81 million	($1.03)	-3.38

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.5% of Alibaba Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.0% of Accolade shares are held by institutional investors. 12.5% of Alibaba Group shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.2% of Accolade shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Alibaba Group beats Accolade on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help merchants, brands, retailers, and other businesses to engage with their users and customers in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company operates through seven segments: China Commerce, International Commerce, Local Consumer Services, Cainiao, Cloud, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives and Others. It operates Taobao, a digital retail platform; Tmall, a third-party online and mobile commerce platform; Alimama, a monetization platform; 1688.com and Alibaba.com, which are online wholesale marketplaces; AliExpress, a retail marketplace; Lazada, Trendyol, and Daraz that are e-commerce platforms; Freshippo, a retail platform for groceries and fresh goods; and Tmall Global, an import e-commerce platform. The company also operates Cainiao Network logistic services platform; Ele.me, an on-demand delivery and local services platform; Koubei, a restaurant and local services guide platform; and Fliggy, an online travel platform. In addition, it offers pay-for-performance, in-feed, and display marketing services; and Taobao Ad Network and Exchange, a real-time online bidding marketing exchange. Further, the company provides elastic computing, storage, network, security, database, big data, and IoT services; and hardware, software license, software installation, and application development and maintenance services. Additionally, it operates Youku, an online video platform; Quark, a platform for information search, storage, and consumption; Alibaba Pictures and other content platforms that provide online videos, films, live events, news feeds, literature, music, and others; Amap, a mobile digital map, navigation, and real-time traffic information app; DingTalk, a business efficiency mobile app; and Tmall Genie smart speaker. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China.

About Accolade

Accolade, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and provision of personalized and technology-enabled solutions that help people to understand, navigate, and utilize the healthcare system and their workplace benefits in the United States. The company offers a platform with cloud-based intelligent technology and multimodal support from a team of advocates and clinicians, including registered nurses, physician medical directors, pharmacists, behavioral health specialists, women’s health specialists, case management specialists, expert medical opinion providers, and primary care physicians. It also provides medical opinion services to commercial customers; and navigation, care, and advocacy solutions. In addition, the company offers medical consultations that connect patients to qualified condition-specific specialists for adult and pediatric care; and primary care and mental health support solutions. It serves employers who provide employees and their families a single place to turn for their health, healthcare, and benefits needs. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.