LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) and Cardlytics (NASDAQ:CDLX) Head-To-Head Analysis

LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) and Cardlytics (NASDAQ:CDLX) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and dividends.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

93.8% of LiveRamp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.1% of Cardlytics shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of LiveRamp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.4% of Cardlytics shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LiveRamp and Cardlytics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LiveRamp	$745.58 million	2.24	-$810,000.00	$0.61	42.93
Cardlytics	$278.30 million	0.22	-$189.30 million	($2.11)	-0.55

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for LiveRamp and Cardlytics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LiveRamp	1	4	2	0	2.14
Cardlytics	1	3	0	0	1.75

LiveRamp presently has a consensus price target of $43.50, indicating a potential upside of 66.09%. Cardlytics has a consensus price target of $2.25, indicating a potential upside of 95.65%. Given Cardlytics’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cardlytics is more favorable than LiveRamp.

Risk & Volatility

LiveRamp has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cardlytics has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares LiveRamp and Cardlytics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LiveRamp	5.15%	4.44%	3.38%
Cardlytics	-44.12%	-235.70%	-31.31%

Summary

LiveRamp beats Cardlytics on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LiveRamp

LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., a technology company, operates a data collaboration platform in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates LiveRamp Data Collaboration platform enables an organization to unify customer and prospect data to build a single view of the customer in a way that protects consumer privacy. Its platform supports various people-based marketing solutions, including data collaboration, activation, measurement and analytics, identity, and data marketplace. The company sells its solutions to enterprise marketers, agencies, marketing technology providers, publishers, and data providers in various industry verticals, such as financial, insurance and investment services, retail, automotive, telecommunications, high tech, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, travel, entertainment, and non-profit. The company was formerly known as Acxiom Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. in October 2018. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics, Inc. operates an advertising platform in the United States and the United Kingdom. It offers Cardlytics platform, a proprietary native bank advertising channel that enables marketers to reach customers through their network of financial institution partners through digital channels, such as online, mobile applications, email, and various real-time notifications; and Bridg platform, a customer data platform which utilizes point-of-sale data and enables marketers to perform analytics and targeted loyalty marketing, as well as measure the impact of their marketing. The company was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.