Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN) & LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) Critical Contrast

Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN) and LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Gen Digital has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LiveRamp has a beta of 1.25, suggesting that its stock price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

81.4% of Gen Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of LiveRamp shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.7% of Gen Digital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of LiveRamp shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Gen Digital and LiveRamp”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gen Digital	$5.08 billion	3.57	$973.00 million	$1.72	17.59
LiveRamp	$812.94 million	2.82	$145.95 million	$2.44	15.47

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Gen Digital and LiveRamp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gen Digital	0	6	1	1	2.38
LiveRamp	0	6	2	0	2.25

Gen Digital currently has a consensus price target of $31.60, indicating a potential upside of 4.43%. LiveRamp has a consensus price target of $40.21, indicating a potential upside of 6.54%. Given LiveRamp’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe LiveRamp is more favorable than Gen Digital.

Profitability

This table compares Gen Digital and LiveRamp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gen Digital	20.73%	55.93%	8.91%
LiveRamp	18.71%	9.77%	7.41%

Summary

Gen Digital beats LiveRamp on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gen Digital

Gen Digital Inc. engages in the provision of cyber safety solutions for consumers in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers security and performance products under Norton, Avast, Avira, AVG, and CCleaner brands that provide real-time protection and maintenance for PCs, Macs, and mobile devices against malware, viruses, adware, and other online threats. It also provides identity protection solutions, including LifeLock Identity Theft Protection, Avast and AVG Secure Identity, Norton Identity Theft Protection, and Dark Web Monitoring for monitoring of credit reports, financial accounts, the dark web, and social media accounts to help safeguard customers’ personal information. In addition, the company offers Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions under Norton, Avast and AVG brands to enhance security and online privacy that allows customers to securely transmit and access private information, such as passwords, bank details, and credit card numbers, when using public Wi-Fi on PCs, Macs, and mobile iOS and Android devices; AntiTrack and Secure Browser products which helps to keep personal information and browsing activity anonymous while browsing online; and Privacy Monitor Assistant and BreachGuard products for removing customers’ data from public data broker sites; and ReputationDefender, a white glove service that helps customers manage all aspects of their personal branding online, including search results, social media sites, and overall web presence. It markets and sells its products and related services through retailers, telecom service providers, hardware original equipment manufacturers, and employee benefit providers, as well as e-commerce platform. The company was formerly known as NortonLifeLock Inc. and changed its name to Gen Digital Inc. in November 2022. Gen Digital Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.

About LiveRamp

LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., a technology company, operates a data collaboration platform in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates LiveRamp Data Collaboration platform enables an organization to unify customer and prospect data to build a single view of the customer in a way that protects consumer privacy. Its platform supports various people-based marketing solutions, including data collaboration, activation, measurement and analytics, identity, and data marketplace. The company sells its solutions to enterprise marketers, agencies, marketing technology providers, publishers, and data providers in various industry verticals, such as financial, insurance and investment services, retail, automotive, telecommunications, high tech, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, travel, entertainment, and non-profit. The company was formerly known as Acxiom Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. in October 2018. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.