Critical Analysis: Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA) versus Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK)

Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) and Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Shutterstock and Opera, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shutterstock	1	3	1	0	2.00
Opera	1	1	4	0	2.50

Shutterstock currently has a consensus price target of $25.00, indicating a potential upside of 32.26%. Opera has a consensus price target of $23.83, indicating a potential upside of 66.32%. Given Opera’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Opera is more favorable than Shutterstock.

Profitability

This table compares Shutterstock and Opera’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shutterstock	5.89%	16.30%	6.80%
Opera	13.93%	8.91%	7.95%

Dividends

Shutterstock pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.0%. Opera pays an annual dividend of $0.78 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Shutterstock pays out 78.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Opera pays out 86.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Shutterstock has increased its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Shutterstock is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

82.8% of Shutterstock shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 10.2% of Opera shares are held by institutional investors. 32.3% of Shutterstock shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 84.4% of Opera shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shutterstock	$935.26 million	0.72	$35.93 million	$1.68	11.25
Opera	$480.65 million	2.67	$80.77 million	$0.90	15.92

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

Volatility & Risk

Shutterstock has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its stock price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Opera has a beta of 1.25, suggesting that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Opera beats Shutterstock on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shutterstock

Shutterstock, Inc. provides platform to connect brands and businesses to high quality content in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers image services consisting of photographs, vectors, and illustrations, which is used in visual communications, such as websites, digital and print marketing materials, corporate communications, books, publications, and others; footage services, including video clips, filmed by industry experts and cinema grade video effects in HD and 4K formats that are integrated into websites, social media, marketing campaigns, and cinematic productions; and music services comprising music tracks and sound effects, which are used to complement images and footage. It also provides 3 dimensional models consisting of 3D models used in various industries, such as advertising, media and video production, gaming, retail, education, design, and architecture; and generative AI content comprising images generated from algorithms trained with ethically sourced content. The company offers its services under the Shutterstock, Pond5, TurboSquid, PicMonkey, PremiumBeat, Splash News, Bigstock, and Offset brand names. In addition, it operates a collection of graphics interchange format visuals and stickers that supplies casual conversational content. The company serves corporate professionals and organizations, media and broadcast companies, and small and medium-sized businesses, and individual creators through digital, live sales, and client management channels. Shutterstock, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Opera

Opera Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides mobile and PC web browsers and related products and services in Norway and internationally. The company offers mobile browser products, such as Opera Mini, Opera browser for Android and iOS, and Opera GX for PCs and Mobile; Opera Touch; PC browsers, including Opera for Computers and Opera GX; Apex Football; Opera VPN Pro; and Opera News, an AI-powered personalized news discovery and aggregation service. It provides Opera Crypto Browser for PCs and mobile; browser-based cashback rewards programs; owns GameMaker Studio, a 2D gaming development platform; and GXC, a gaming portal. In addition, the company operates Opera Ads, an online advertising platform; and offers Web3 and e-commerce services. Opera Limited was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Opera Limited is a subsidiary of Kunlun Tech Limited.