Critical Review: Pintec Technology (NASDAQ:PT) versus MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX)

Pintec Technology (NASDAQ:PT) and MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pintec Technology and MediaAlpha”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pintec Technology	$35.55 million	0.50	-$2.12 million	N/A	N/A
MediaAlpha	$864.70 million	0.86	$16.63 million	($0.03)	-381.13

MediaAlpha has higher revenue and earnings than Pintec Technology.

Volatility & Risk

Pintec Technology has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.21, suggesting that its share price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Pintec Technology and MediaAlpha’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pintec Technology	N/A	N/A	N/A
MediaAlpha	-0.10%	-71.02%	14.66%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

6.6% of Pintec Technology shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Pintec Technology shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 13.4% of MediaAlpha shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Pintec Technology and MediaAlpha, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pintec Technology	1	0	0	0	1.00
MediaAlpha	1	2	5	0	2.50

MediaAlpha has a consensus price target of $17.25, suggesting a potential upside of 50.87%. Given MediaAlpha’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MediaAlpha is more favorable than Pintec Technology.

Summary

MediaAlpha beats Pintec Technology on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pintec Technology

Pintec Technology Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of technology-enabled financial and digital services to the ecosystem of MSMEs and SMEs in the People’s Republic of China. The company connects business partners and financial partners on its open platform and enables them to provide financial services to end users. It provides point-of-sale financing solutions to its business partners on their platforms or on its own platform under the Dumiao brand; and business installment loan solutions to its business partners on their platforms or on its own platform. The company also offers wealth management solutions, including a fund distribution solution that enables partners to offer and distribute mutual fund products to their customers, either under its Hongdian brand or as a white label solution; and a robo-advisory solution under the Polaris brand which enables its financial and business partners to provide robo-advisory services to their customers. In addition, it provides international installment loan solutions; Myfin, an insurance solution, that enables its partners to offer and distribute insurance products to its users; value added tools to business and financial partners for deploying its solutions, monitor and evaluate performance, and scale their business; digital marketing tools to target users, implement intelligent digital marketing activities, and increase marketing efficiencies and effectiveness; and real time monitoring tools that offer comprehensive and visualized performance monitoring interface. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.

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.