Agora (NASDAQ:API – Get Free Report) and Lesaka Technologies (NASDAQ:LSAK – Get Free Report) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Agora and Lesaka Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Agora | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
| Lesaka Technologies | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 |
Agora currently has a consensus price target of $6.00, indicating a potential upside of 52.67%. Given Agora’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Agora is more favorable than Lesaka Technologies.
Profitability
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Agora | 3.47% | 0.84% | 0.68% |
| Lesaka Technologies | -14.02% | -47.06% | -13.44% |
Institutional and Insider Ownership
40.4% of Agora shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.2% of Lesaka Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.6% of Agora shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Lesaka Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Risk and Volatility
Agora has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lesaka Technologies has a beta of 0.59, meaning that its share price is 41% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Agora and Lesaka Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Agora | $137.36 million | 2.67 | -$42.73 million | $0.04 | 98.25 |
| Lesaka Technologies | $328.70 million | 1.12 | -$87.50 million | ($1.07) | -4.07 |
Agora has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Lesaka Technologies. Lesaka Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Agora, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Agora beats Lesaka Technologies on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Agora
Agora, Inc. operates in real-time engagement technology business in the People's Republic of China, the United States, and internationally. The company offers real-time engagement platform-as-a-services providing developers with application programming interfaces to embed real-time voice, video, interactive live-streaming, chat, whiteboard, and artificial intelligence capabilities into their applications. It also provides video and voice calling, interactive live and broadcast streaming, chat, signaling, and interactive whiteboard products; and extensions, such as analytics, recording, AI noise suppression, 3D spatial audio, real-time transcription, and extensions marketplace. In addition, the company offers Application Platforms, including Flexible Classroom, a low-code application Platform as a Service, which combines video, voice, chat, signaling, whiteboard and recording functionalities into an integrated cloud-based solution for education providers; and App Builder, a no-code application platform, designed for developers with little or no coding experience to build their own applications with video conference and live streaming functionalities. It operates through Agora and Shengwang brands. Agora, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
About Lesaka Technologies
Lesaka Technologies, Inc. operates as a Fintech company that utilizes its proprietary banking and payment technologies to deliver financial services solutions to merchants (B2B) and consumers (B2C) in Southern Africa. It offers cash management solutions, growth capital, card acquiring, bill payment technologies, and value-added services to formal and informal retail merchants, as well as banking, lending, and insurance solutions to consumers across Southern Africa. The company also engages in the sale of POS devices, SIM cards, and other consumables; and license of rights to use certain technology developed by the company, as well as offers related technology services. The company was formerly known as Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. and changed its name to Lesaka Technologies, Inc. in May 2022. Lesaka Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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