Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) vs. Cardlytics (NASDAQ:CDLX) Financial Contrast

Aurora Innovation (NASDAQ:AUR) and Cardlytics (NASDAQ:CDLX) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Aurora Innovation has a beta of 2.49, indicating that its share price is 149% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cardlytics has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Aurora Innovation and Cardlytics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Aurora Innovation	0	4	5	0	2.56
Cardlytics	0	3	0	1	2.50

Aurora Innovation currently has a consensus price target of $10.75, suggesting a potential upside of 68.23%. Cardlytics has a consensus price target of $2.25, suggesting a potential upside of 85.95%. Given Cardlytics’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cardlytics is more favorable than Aurora Innovation.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Aurora Innovation and Cardlytics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Aurora Innovation	$68.00 million	173.41	-$748.00 million	($0.47)	-13.60
Cardlytics	$278.30 million	0.23	-$189.30 million	($3.65)	-0.33

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

Profitability

This table compares Aurora Innovation and Cardlytics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Aurora Innovation	N/A	-42.25%	-37.29%
Cardlytics	-68.87%	-279.39%	-48.17%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

44.7% of Aurora Innovation shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.1% of Cardlytics shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.9% of Aurora Innovation shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.4% of Cardlytics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Aurora Innovation beats Cardlytics on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Aurora Innovation

Aurora Innovation, Inc. operates as a self-driving technology company in the United States. It focuses on developing Aurora Driver, a platform that brings a suite of self-driving hardware, software, and data services together to adapt and interoperate vehicles. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics, Inc. operates an advertising platform in the United States and the United Kingdom. It offers Cardlytics platform, a proprietary native bank advertising channel that enables marketers to reach customers through their network of financial institution partners through digital channels, such as online, mobile applications, email, and various real-time notifications; and Bridg platform, a customer data platform which utilizes point-of-sale data and enables marketers to perform analytics and targeted loyalty marketing, as well as measure the impact of their marketing. The company was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.