Publicis Groupe (OTCMKTS:PUBGY) versus System1 (NYSE:SST) Critical Contrast

Publicis Groupe (OTCMKTS:PUBGY) and System1 (NYSE:SST) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.1% of Publicis Groupe shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of System1 shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of Publicis Groupe shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.2% of System1 shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Publicis Groupe has a beta of 0.83, meaning that its share price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, System1 has a beta of 1.56, meaning that its share price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Publicis Groupe and System1, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Publicis Groupe	0	1	0	2	3.33
System1	1	0	1	0	2.00

System1 has a consensus price target of $10.00, suggesting a potential upside of 159.54%. Given System1’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe System1 is more favorable than Publicis Groupe.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Publicis Groupe and System1″s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Publicis Groupe	$19.68 billion	1.15	$1.87 billion	N/A	N/A
System1	$266.13 million	0.14	-$65.35 million	($8.28)	-0.47

Publicis Groupe has higher revenue and earnings than System1.

Profitability

This table compares Publicis Groupe and System1’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Publicis Groupe	N/A	N/A	N/A
System1	-24.55%	-163.44%	-17.23%

Summary

Publicis Groupe beats System1 on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Publicis Groupe

Publicis Groupe S.A. provides marketing, communications, and digital business transformation services in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. The company offers advisory services for brand strategy, and repositioning and their identity under the Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Marcel, Fallon, and BBH brands; online advertising services under the Razorfish and Moxie brand names; crisis communications, press relations, public affairs, institutional relations, financial communications, and strategy management services; media consulting, planning, and buying services; performance marketing services; and e-commerce services. It also designs and delivers brand content for various channels, such as television, print, radio, cinema, and billboards, as well as digital, including display and social networks under the Prodigious, Harbor, and The Pub brand names. In addition, the company operates Epsilon PeopleCloud, a unified data and technology platform; and Publicis Sapient, a technological, digital, and consulting platform. Further, it provides healthcare communication services under the Digitas Health, Publicis Health Media, and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness brands for the healthcare and well-being sectors. It serves clients in the automotive, retail, financial services, consumer products, and media sectors. Publicis Groupe S.A. was founded in 1926 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

About System1

System1, Inc. provides omnichannel customer acquisition platform services through its proprietary responsive acquisition marketing platform in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Owned and Operated Advertising, and Partner Network. The company engages in the provision of acquiring traffic to its owned and operated websites, as well as revenue-sharing arrangements and related services. It also operates MapQuest, a web-based navigation service that delivers turn-by-turn direction services to users; Info.com, a metasearch engine that consumers can use to search for relevant information; HowStuffWorks, a commercial website focused on helping people solve problems in their daily lives by using various types of digital media to easily breakdown and explain complex concepts, topics, terminology and mechanisms; Startpage, a private search engine that allows users to browse and search the Internet in complete privacy; and CouponFollow for coupon destinations for online shoppers, as well as ActiveBeat and Infospace. In addition, the company provides antivirus software solutions, which offers customers a single packaged solution that provides protection and reporting to the end users. The company is based in Los Angeles, California.