Izea Worldwide (NASDAQ:IZEA) & Optimum Communications (NYSE:OPTU) Head-To-Head Survey

Optimum Communications (NYSE:OPTU) and Izea Worldwide (NASDAQ:IZEA) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, risk and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Optimum Communications and Izea Worldwide’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Optimum Communications	-58.15%	N/A	-0.70%
Izea Worldwide	-9.36%	-5.10%	-4.41%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

54.8% of Optimum Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.6% of Izea Worldwide shares are owned by institutional investors. 43.4% of Optimum Communications shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 6.5% of Izea Worldwide shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Optimum Communications has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Izea Worldwide has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Optimum Communications and Izea Worldwide, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Optimum Communications	4	6	0	0	1.60
Izea Worldwide	2	0	0	0	1.00

Optimum Communications currently has a consensus target price of $0.92, indicating a potential downside of 9.69%. Given Optimum Communications’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Optimum Communications is more favorable than Izea Worldwide.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Optimum Communications and Izea Worldwide”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Optimum Communications	$8.59 billion	0.03	-$1.87 billion	($10.39)	-0.10
Izea Worldwide	$31.24 million	1.73	$40,000.00	($0.14)	-22.21

Izea Worldwide has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Optimum Communications. Izea Worldwide is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Optimum Communications, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Optimum Communications beats Izea Worldwide on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Optimum Communications

Altice USA, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband communications and video services in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. It offers broadband, video, telephony, and mobile services to approximately five million residential and business customers. The company’s video services include delivery of broadcast stations and cable networks; over the top services; video-on-demand, high-definition channels, digital video recorder, and pay-per-view services; and platforms for video programming through mobile applications. It also provides voice over Internet protocol telephone services; and mobile services, such as data, talk, and text. In addition, the company offers Ethernet, data transport, IP-based virtual private networks, Internet access, and telephony services; hosted telephony services, managed Wi-Fi, managed desktop and server backup, and collaboration services comprising audio and web conferencing; fiber-to-the-tower services to wireless carriers; data services consisting of wide area networking and dedicated data access, as well as wireless mesh networks; and enterprise class telephone services that include traditional multi-line phone service. Further, it provides business e-mail, hosted private branch exchange, web space storage, and network security monitoring; and international calling and toll free numbers. Additionally, the company offers audience-based and IP-authenticated cross-screen advertising solutions; and television and digital advertising services, as well as operates news channels under the News 12 Networks, Cheddar, and i24NEWS names. It also provides broadband communications and video services under the Optimum and Suddenlink brands. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Long Island City, New York. Altice USA, Inc. is a subsidiary of Next Alt. S.a.r.l.

About Izea Worldwide

IZEA Worldwide, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, offers software and professional services to connect brands and content creators in North America, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company offers IZEA Flex, its flagship platform for managing enterprise influencer marketing; and comprehensive expense management service to track and manage off-platform expenses related to influencer marketing campaigns. It also operates The Creator Marketplace on IZEA.com that provides creators tools to present their work to marketers. In addition, the company provides management of content workflow, creator search and targeting, bidding, analytics, and payment processing services. It primarily sells influencer marketing and custom content campaigns through client development team and platforms. The company was formerly known as IZEA, Inc. and changed its name to IZEA Worldwide, Inc. in August 2018. IZEA Worldwide, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.