Head-To-Head Contrast: comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) versus Emerald (NYSE:EEX)

comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) and Emerald (NYSE:EEX) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

42.2% of comScore shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 14.9% of Emerald shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.8% of comScore shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.5% of Emerald shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

comScore has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Emerald has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for comScore and Emerald, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
comScore	0	1	1	0	2.50
Emerald	0	0	2	0	3.00

comScore presently has a consensus price target of $10.75, indicating a potential upside of 36.94%. Emerald has a consensus price target of $7.90, indicating a potential upside of 80.37%. Given Emerald’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Emerald is more favorable than comScore.

Profitability

This table compares comScore and Emerald’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
comScore	-25.77%	-243.87%	-19.79%
Emerald	-5.29%	-13.26%	-1.92%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares comScore and Emerald”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
comScore	$371.34 million	0.10	-$79.36 million	($21.75)	-0.36
Emerald	$382.80 million	2.32	-$8.20 million	($0.54)	-8.11

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

Summary

Emerald beats comScore on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. operates as an information and analytics company that measures audiences, consumer behavior, and advertising across media platforms in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and internationally. The company provides digital ad solutions, including Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix, which measure websites and applications on computers, smartphones, and tablets; Video Metrix that delivers measurement of digital video consumption; Plan Metrix, which offers understanding of consumer lifestyle; Total Home Panel Suite, which capture OTT, connected TV, and IOT device usage and content consumption; CCR, which enhances validated campaign essentials verification of mobile and desktop video campaigns; XMedia Enhanced, which provides a deduplicated view of national programming content; Comscore marketing solutions; Lift Models, which measures the impact of advertising on a brand; Survey Analytics, which measure various consumer insights including brand health metrics; and Activation Solutions, including audience activation and content activation. The company's cross platform solutions products and services comprises Comscore TVNational that helps customers understand the performance of network advertising campaigns; Comscore TVLocal allows customers to understand consumer viewing patterns and characteristics; OnDemand Essentials that provides transactional tracking and reporting; Movie Solutions; and Hollywood Software Suite. In addition, it offers custom solutions for planning, optimization, and evaluation of advertising campaigns and brand protection. Further, the company provides products that measure movie viewership and box office results by capturing movie ticket sales in real time or near real time. It serves digital publishers, television networks, movie studios, content owners, brand advertisers, agencies, and technology providers. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

About Emerald

Emerald Holding, Inc. operates business-to-business (B2B) trade shows in the United States. The company provides B2B trade show franchises; and B2B print publications and digital media products, which provide industry specific business news and information across various sectors. It also offers B2B e-commerce and digital merchandising solutions to manufacturers and retailers through Elastic Suite and Bulletin platforms. The company serves retail, design, technology, equipment, and safety and security. Emerald Holding, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in New York, New York.