Head-To-Head Analysis: Cumulus Media (NASDAQ:CMLS) vs. Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO)

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) and Cumulus Media (NASDAQ:CMLS) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Criteo and Cumulus Media”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Criteo	N/A	N/A	N/A	$1.97	7.19
Cumulus Media	$827.08 million	0.00	-$117.88 million	($17.39)	-0.00

Criteo has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Cumulus Media. Cumulus Media is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Criteo, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.3% of Criteo shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.7% of Cumulus Media shares are held by institutional investors. 1.5% of Criteo shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.9% of Cumulus Media shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Criteo and Cumulus Media, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Criteo	2	4	6	0	2.33
Cumulus Media	0	1	0	0	2.00

Criteo presently has a consensus price target of $22.35, indicating a potential upside of 57.73%. Given Criteo’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Criteo is more favorable than Cumulus Media.

Profitability

This table compares Criteo and Cumulus Media’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Criteo	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cumulus Media	-18.11%	-30.27%	-5.62%

Summary

Criteo beats Cumulus Media on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Criteo

Criteo S.A., a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties. It also offers Criteo AI Engine solutions, including lookalike finder, recommendation, and predictive bidding algorithms; recommendation algorithms, dynamic creative optimization+, sponsored product placement algorithms, and other product placement algorithms. The company's technology comprises data synchronization, storage, and analysis of distributed computing infrastructure in various geographies, as well as fast data collection and retrieval using multi-layered caching infrastructure; and experimentation platform, an offline/online testing platform to enhance the capabilities and effectiveness of prediction models. In addition, it provides Criteo Marketing Solutions that allow commerce companies to address various marketing goals by engaging their consumers with personalized ads across the web, mobile, and offline store environments; and Criteo Retail Media solutions, which allows retailers to generate advertising revenues from consumer brands, and/or to drive sales for themselves, by monetizing their data and audiences through personalized ads, either on their own digital property or on the open Internet. Further, the company offers real-time advertising technology and trading infrastructure, delivering advanced media buying, selling, and packaging capabilities for media owners, agencies, performance advertisers, and third-party AdTech platforms. It serves companies in digital retail, travel, and classifieds sectors. Criteo S.A. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

About Cumulus Media

Cumulus Media Inc., an audio-first media company, owns and operates radio stations in the United States. It owns and operates stations in various markets, as well as affiliated stations through Westwood One. The company's content portfolio includes sports, news, talk, and entertainment programming from various brands, including the NFL, the NCAA, the Masters, CNN, AP News, the Academy of Country Music Awards, and other partners. In addition, the company provides digital marketing services, such as email marketing, geo-targeted display and video solutions, website and microsite building, hosting, social media management, reputation and listing management, and search engine marketing and optimization; influencers, audio solutions, research and insights, and live event services; and advertising performance guarantee services. The company serves advertisers through broadcast and on-demand digital, mobile, social, and voice-activated platforms. Cumulus Media Inc. was founded in 2002 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.