Contrasting BuzzFeed (NASDAQ:BZFD) and United Internet (OTCMKTS:UDIRF)

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
United Internet	N/A	N/A	N/A
BuzzFeed	-35.83%	-113.86%	-34.00%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares United Internet and BuzzFeed”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
United Internet	$6.85 billion	0.77	$114.57 million	($0.34)	-80.40
BuzzFeed	$170.71 million	0.47	-$57.72 million	($1.54)	-0.63

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for United Internet and BuzzFeed, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
United Internet	0	0	2	0	3.00
BuzzFeed	1	1	0	0	1.50

BuzzFeed has a consensus price target of $1.00, suggesting a potential upside of 3.70%. Given BuzzFeed’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe BuzzFeed is more favorable than United Internet.

Volatility and Risk

United Internet has a beta of 0.11, indicating that its share price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BuzzFeed has a beta of 3.88, indicating that its share price is 288% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

37.6% of BuzzFeed shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.6% of BuzzFeed 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.

Summary

United Internet beats BuzzFeed on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed, Inc., a digital media company, distributes content across owned and operated, as well as third-party platforms. The company offers BuzzFeed, a go-to authority for entertainment, pop culture, and Internet with articles, lists, quizzes, videos, and original series; BuzzFeed News, a pocket friendly newsroom; Tasty, a platform for food content; HuffPost, media platform for news, politics, opinion, entertainment, features, and lifestyle content. It also provides display, programmatic, and video advertising on its owned and operated sites and applications. BuzzFeed, Inc. is headquartered in New York, New York.