Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) vs. Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) Head to Head Survey

Groupon (NASDAQ:GRPN) and Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Groupon and Booking”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Groupon	$498.42 million	1.95	-$83.52 million	($2.61)	-9.81
Booking	$26.92 billion	5.03	$5.40 billion	$7.60	23.01

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.0% of Groupon shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Booking shares are held by institutional investors. 36.6% of Groupon shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Booking shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

Groupon has a beta of 0.23, indicating that its stock price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Booking has a beta of 1.07, indicating that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Groupon and Booking’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Groupon	-20.78%	N/A	-16.40%
Booking	22.23%	-117.14%	25.85%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Groupon and Booking, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Groupon	2	1	2	0	2.00
Booking	0	8	28	1	2.81

Groupon presently has a consensus target price of $19.50, suggesting a potential downside of 23.83%. Booking has a consensus target price of $227.55, suggesting a potential upside of 30.14%. Given Booking’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Booking is more favorable than Groupon.

Summary

Booking beats Groupon on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Groupon

Groupon, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a marketplace that connects consumers to merchants. It operates in two segments, North America and International. The company sells goods or services on behalf of third-party merchants. It serves customers through its mobile applications and websites. The company was formerly known as ThePoint.com, Inc. and changed its name to Groupon, Inc. in October 2008. Groupon, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About Booking

Booking Holdings Inc, formerly The Priceline Group Inc., is a provider of travel and restaurant online reservation and related services. The Company, through its online travel companies (OTCs), connects consumers wishing to make travel reservations with providers of travel services across the world. It offers consumers an array of accommodation reservations (including hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, apartments, vacation rentals and other properties) through its Booking.com, priceline.com and agoda.com brands. Its other brands include KAYAK, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable, Inc. (OpenTable). As of December 31, 2016, Booking.com offered accommodation reservation services for over 1,115,000 properties in over 220 countries and territories on its various Websites and in over 40 languages, which included over 568,000 vacation rental properties (updated property counts were available on the Booking.com Website).