Comparing United Internet (OTCMKTS:UDIRF) and LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN)

LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) and United Internet (OTCMKTS:UDIRF) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for LivePerson and United Internet, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LivePerson	1	1	0	0	1.50
United Internet	1	0	0	0	1.00

Insider & Institutional Ownership

79.8% of LivePerson shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of LivePerson shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

LivePerson has a beta of 1.46, indicating that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Internet has a beta of 0.13, indicating that its stock price is 87% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LivePerson and United Internet”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LivePerson	$243.74 million	0.13	-$67.23 million	($13.05)	-0.20
United Internet	$6.85 billion	0.77	$114.57 million	$0.74	36.94

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

Profitability

This table compares LivePerson and United Internet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LivePerson	-27.58%	N/A	-8.06%
United Internet	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

United Internet beats LivePerson on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LivePerson

LivePerson, Inc. engages in conversational artificial intelligence. It enables brands to leverage the Conversational Cloud's intelligence engine to connect with consumers through an integrated suite of mobile and online business messaging technologies. The company offers the Conversational Cloud, an enterprise-class digital customer conversation platform, which enables businesses and consumers to connect through conversational channels, such as voice, in-app, and mobile messaging. It also provides professional services; LivePerson's Conversational AI, including conversation builder, manager, and intelligence, and intent manager. In addition, it provides Voice AI, conversational intelligence and insights, and integration services. The company sells its products to Fortune 500 companies, Internet businesses, online merchants, automotive dealers, educational institution, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations. It operates in the United States, Canada, Latin America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Asia-Pacific. LivePerson, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About United Internet

United Internet AG, through its subsidiaries, operates as an Internet service provider worldwide. The company operates through Consumer Access, Business Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments. It offers landline-based broadband and mobile internet products, including home networks, online storage, telephony, and IPTV for private users; and telecommunication products ranging from fiber-optic direct connections to tailored ICT solutions, which include voice, data, and network solutions, as well as infrastructure services to national and international carriers and ISPs. The company also provides applications and services for home users, such as personal information management applications comprising email, to-do lists, appointments, and addresses; and online cloud storage, as well as domains and website solutions. In addition, it provides business applications for freelancers and small to medium enterprises, such as domains, websites, web hosting, servers, cloud solutions, e-shops, group work, online cloud storage, and office software. It offers its access products through the yourfone, smartmobile.de, 1&1, and 1&1 Versatel brands; and applications through GMX, mail.com, WEB.DE, home.pl, Arsys, STRATO, IONOS, Fasthosts, we22, InterNetX, united-domains, and World4You brand names. In addition, the company offers customers professional services in the fields of active domain management; performance-based advertising and sales services under the Sedo brand name; online advertising services under the United Internet Media brand name; and white-label website builder services under the we22 brand, as well as sells IT hardware. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Montabaur, Germany.