Sphere 3D (NASDAQ:ANY – Get Free Report) and PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV – Get Free Report) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation, risk, profitability and institutional ownership.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
17.3% of Sphere 3D shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 31.2% of PPDAI Group shares are held by institutional investors. 3.9% of Sphere 3D shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 44.0% of PPDAI Group shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Sphere 3D and PPDAI Group, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Sphere 3D | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 |
| PPDAI Group | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.67 |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Sphere 3D and PPDAI Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Sphere 3D | $16.61 million | 0.33 | -$9.47 million | ($7.70) | -0.21 |
| PPDAI Group | $1.79 billion | 0.81 | $326.49 million | $1.47 | 3.88 |
PPDAI Group has higher revenue and earnings than Sphere 3D. Sphere 3D is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PPDAI Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Sphere 3D and PPDAI Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Sphere 3D | -167.47% | -61.18% | -56.57% |
| PPDAI Group | 19.98% | 18.33% | 11.77% |
Risk and Volatility
Sphere 3D has a beta of 3.75, meaning that its stock price is 275% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PPDAI Group has a beta of 0.39, meaning that its stock price is 61% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
PPDAI Group beats Sphere 3D on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Sphere 3D
Sphere 3D Corp. engages in the bitcoin mining business. It is involved with digital asset mining pool operators to provide computing power to the mining pools. The company is based in Stamford, Connecticut.
About PPDAI Group
FinVolution Group operates in the online consumer finance industry. The company operates a fintech platform that is empowered by borrowers with financial institutions. It operates in China and internationally. The company was formerly known as PPDAI Group Inc. and changed its name to FinVolution Group in November 2019. FinVolution Group was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China.
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