Head to Head Review: Pintec Technology (NASDAQ:PT) and MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX)

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) and Pintec Technology (NASDAQ:PT) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.6% of Pintec Technology shares are held by institutional investors. 13.4% of MediaAlpha shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Pintec Technology shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares MediaAlpha and Pintec Technology”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MediaAlpha	$864.70 million	0.86	$16.63 million	($0.03)	-379.63
Pintec Technology	$35.55 million	0.43	-$2.12 million	N/A	N/A

MediaAlpha has higher revenue and earnings than Pintec Technology.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for MediaAlpha and Pintec Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MediaAlpha	1	2	5	0	2.50
Pintec Technology	1	0	0	0	1.00

MediaAlpha currently has a consensus target price of $17.25, suggesting a potential upside of 51.46%. Given MediaAlpha’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe MediaAlpha is more favorable than Pintec Technology.

Volatility & Risk

MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.21, indicating that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pintec Technology has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares MediaAlpha and Pintec Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MediaAlpha	-0.10%	-71.02%	14.66%
Pintec Technology	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

MediaAlpha beats Pintec Technology on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MediaAlpha

MediaAlpha, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates an insurance customer acquisition platform in the United States. It optimizes customer acquisition in various verticals of property and casualty insurance, health insurance, and life insurance. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About Pintec Technology

Pintec Technology Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of technology-enabled financial and digital services to the ecosystem of MSMEs and SMEs in the People’s Republic of China. The company connects business partners and financial partners on its open platform and enables them to provide financial services to end users. It provides point-of-sale financing solutions to its business partners on their platforms or on its own platform under the Dumiao brand; and business installment loan solutions to its business partners on their platforms or on its own platform. The company also offers wealth management solutions, including a fund distribution solution that enables partners to offer and distribute mutual fund products to their customers, either under its Hongdian brand or as a white label solution; and a robo-advisory solution under the Polaris brand which enables its financial and business partners to provide robo-advisory services to their customers. In addition, it provides international installment loan solutions; Myfin, an insurance solution, that enables its partners to offer and distribute insurance products to its users; value added tools to business and financial partners for deploying its solutions, monitor and evaluate performance, and scale their business; digital marketing tools to target users, implement intelligent digital marketing activities, and increase marketing efficiencies and effectiveness; and real time monitoring tools that offer comprehensive and visualized performance monitoring interface. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.