Reviewing Taboola.com (NASDAQ:TBLA) & EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM)

EPAM Systems (NYSE:EPAM) and Taboola.com (NASDAQ:TBLA) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for EPAM Systems and Taboola.com, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
EPAM Systems	0	5	11	2	2.83
Taboola.com	0	4	5	0	2.56

EPAM Systems presently has a consensus target price of $208.40, indicating a potential upside of 3.95%. Taboola.com has a consensus target price of $4.80, indicating a potential upside of 8.35%. Given Taboola.com’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Taboola.com is more favorable than EPAM Systems.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

91.6% of EPAM Systems shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.9% of Taboola.com shares are held by institutional investors. 4.3% of EPAM Systems shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 22.4% of Taboola.com shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares EPAM Systems and Taboola.com”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
EPAM Systems	$4.73 billion	2.34	$454.53 million	$6.55	30.61
Taboola.com	$1.77 billion	0.72	-$3.76 million	$0.08	55.38

EPAM Systems has higher revenue and earnings than Taboola.com. EPAM Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Taboola.com, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares EPAM Systems and Taboola.com’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
EPAM Systems	7.01%	13.16%	10.15%
Taboola.com	1.34%	8.12%	4.92%

Volatility & Risk

EPAM Systems has a beta of 1.73, meaning that its share price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Taboola.com has a beta of 1.26, meaning that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

EPAM Systems beats Taboola.com on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About EPAM Systems

EPAM Systems, Inc. provides digital platform engineering and software development services worldwide. The company offers engineering services, including requirements analysis and platform selection, customization, cross-platform migration, implementation, and integration; infrastructure management services, such as software development, testing, performance tuning, deployment, maintenance, and support services. It also provides operation solutions comprising integrated engineering practices and smart automation services. In addition, the company offers business, experience, technology, data, and technical advisory consulting services; and digital and service design solutions, which comprise strategy, design, creative, and program management services, as well as physical product development, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality. The company serves the financial services, travel and consumer, software and hi-tech, business information and media, life sciences and healthcare, and other industries EPAM Systems, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

About Taboola.com

Taboola.com Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, operates an artificial intelligence-based algorithmic engine platform in Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and internationally. It offers Taboola, a platform that partners with websites, devices, and mobile apps to recommend editorial content and advertisements on the open web to users. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, New York.