Financial Comparison: MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) & Palladyne AI (NASDAQ:PDYN)

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) and Palladyne AI (NASDAQ:PDYN) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, earnings, profitability, risk and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.39, indicating that its share price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Palladyne AI has a beta of 3.75, indicating that its share price is 275% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for MediaAlpha and Palladyne AI, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MediaAlpha	0	3	4	0	2.57
Palladyne AI	0	2	1	0	2.33

MediaAlpha presently has a consensus target price of $12.70, suggesting a potential upside of 30.83%. Palladyne AI has a consensus target price of $9.00, suggesting a potential upside of 39.53%. Given Palladyne AI’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Palladyne AI is more favorable than MediaAlpha.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MediaAlpha and Palladyne AI”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MediaAlpha	$1.11 billion	0.56	$25.62 million	$0.39	24.89
Palladyne AI	$5.25 million	57.12	$10.04 million	$0.22	29.32

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

Profitability

This table compares MediaAlpha and Palladyne AI’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MediaAlpha	2.30%	-132.73%	22.49%
Palladyne AI	191.37%	8.82%	5.93%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.0% of Palladyne AI shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.4% of MediaAlpha shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.4% of Palladyne AI shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

MediaAlpha beats Palladyne AI on 8 of the 14 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 Palladyne AI

Palladyne AI Corp., a software company, focuses on delivering software that enhances the utility and functionality of third-party stationary and mobile robotic systems in the United States. Its Artificial Intelligence (AI)/ Machine Learning (ML) software platform enables robots to observe, learn, reason, and act in structured and unstructured environments. The company's software platform enables robotic systems to perceive their environment and quickly adapt to changing circumstances by generalizing from their experience using dynamic real-time operations without extensive programming and with minimal robot training. It serves customers from various industries, such as industrial manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, defense, infrastructure maintenance and repair, energy, aerospace and aviation, and others. The company was formerly known as Sarcos Technology and Robotics Corporation and changed its name to Palladyne AI Corp. in March 2024. Palladyne AI Corp. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.