Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) versus Sphere 3D (NASDAQ:ANY) Head to Head Review

Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) and Sphere 3D (NASDAQ:ANY) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Burford Capital and Sphere 3D”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Burford Capital	$546.09 million	5.54	$146.48 million	$1.08	12.81
Sphere 3D	$16.61 million	0.90	-$9.47 million	($0.61)	-0.86

Burford Capital has higher revenue and earnings than Sphere 3D. Sphere 3D is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Burford Capital, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

17.3% of Sphere 3D shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Burford Capital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of Sphere 3D shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Burford Capital and Sphere 3D, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Burford Capital	0	0	2	0	3.00
Sphere 3D	0	0	1	0	3.00

Burford Capital presently has a consensus target price of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 30.10%. Sphere 3D has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 469.91%. Given Sphere 3D’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sphere 3D is more favorable than Burford Capital.

Profitability

This table compares Burford Capital and Sphere 3D’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Burford Capital	37.08%	7.48%	3.88%
Sphere 3D	-131.43%	-47.27%	-41.94%

Volatility and Risk

Burford Capital has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its stock price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sphere 3D has a beta of 3.22, suggesting that its stock price is 222% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Burford Capital beats Sphere 3D on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Burford Capital

Burford Capital Limited provides legal finance products and services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Capital Provision, and Asset Management and Other Provision. The Capital Provision segment provides capital to the legal industry or in connection with legal matters directly and through investment in private funds; legal risk management services; lower risk legal finance business focusing on pre-settlement litigation matters with lower risk and lower expected returns; post-settlement finance; and complex strategies in which it acts as a principal and acquires assets that are mispriced. The Asset Management and Other Services segment provides services to the legal industry, including litigation insurance. Burford Capital Limited was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey.

About Sphere 3D

Sphere 3D Corp. engages in the bitcoin mining business. It is involved with digital asset mining pool operators to provide computing power to the mining pools. The company is based in Stamford, Connecticut.