Head to Head Analysis: Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP) and Professional Diversity Network (NASDAQ:IPDN)

Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP) and Professional Diversity Network (NASDAQ:IPDN) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Sound Group and Professional Diversity Network’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sound Group	1.69%	8.71%	4.96%
Professional Diversity Network	-56.47%	-192.68%	-66.69%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sound Group and Professional Diversity Network’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sound Group	$316.83 million	0.05	$12.54 million	$0.99	2.94
Professional Diversity Network	$7.70 million	2.66	-$4.31 million	($0.42)	-4.26

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Sound Group and Professional Diversity Network, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sound Group	0	0	0	0	N/A
Professional Diversity Network	0	0	0	0	N/A

Risk & Volatility

Sound Group has a beta of 1.71, meaning that its share price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Professional Diversity Network has a beta of 12.83, meaning that its share price is 1,183% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

1.6% of Sound Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 27.8% of Professional Diversity Network shares are held by institutional investors. 25.2% of Sound Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.5% of Professional Diversity Network 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

Sound Group beats Professional Diversity Network on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sound Group

Sound Group Inc. operates as an audio-centric social and entertainment company. It focuses on building audio platform to connect and communicate. The company, through its product portfolio and in-house technologies, caters to user interest in audio entertainment and social networking. The company was formerly known as LIZHI INC. and changed its name to Sound Group Inc. in January 2024. Sound Group Inc. was founded in 2010 and is based in Singapore.

About Professional Diversity Network

Professional Diversity Network, Inc. operates online professional networking communities with career resources in the United States. It operates through three segments: Professional Diversity Network (PDN Network), National Association of Professional Women (NAPW Network), and RemoteMore USA (RemoteMore). The company offers online professional job seeking communities that offers recruitment services, such as single and multiple job postings, recruitment media, talent recruitment communities, corporate memberships, hiring campaign marketing and advertising, e-newsletter marketing, and research and outreach services to various cultural groups and employers. It also provides consumer advertising and consumer marketing solutions through advertising and job postings on its websites; and contracted software development services. In addition, the company operates a women-only professional networking organization; and offers companies with talented engineers to provide solutions to their software needs. Professional Diversity Network, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.