Financial Survey: Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) vs. NerdWallet (NASDAQ:NRDS)

NerdWallet (NASDAQ:NRDS) and Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares NerdWallet and Autohome”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NerdWallet	$836.60 million	0.90	$48.70 million	$0.89	13.27
Autohome	$922.63 million	2.81	$225.19 million	$1.16	19.41

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for NerdWallet and Autohome, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NerdWallet	1	3	4	0	2.38
Autohome	1	4	1	1	2.29

NerdWallet currently has a consensus target price of $12.83, indicating a potential upside of 8.66%. Autohome has a consensus target price of $19.95, indicating a potential downside of 11.40%. Given NerdWallet’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe NerdWallet is more favorable than Autohome.

Risk and Volatility

NerdWallet has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Autohome has a beta of 0.36, meaning that its share price is 64% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares NerdWallet and Autohome’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NerdWallet	7.56%	18.07%	14.41%
Autohome	17.05%	4.44%	3.53%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

38.8% of NerdWallet shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.1% of Autohome shares are held by institutional investors. 52.7% of NerdWallet shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.7% of Autohome shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Autohome beats NerdWallet on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NerdWallet

NerdWallet, Inc. operates a digital platform that provides consumer-driven advice about personal finance by connecting individuals and small and mid-sized businesses with financial products providers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. Its platform offers guidance to consumers through educational content, tools and calculators, and product marketplaces, as well as through NerdWallet app for various financial products, including credit cards, mortgages, insurance, SMB products, personal loans, banking, investing, and student loans. The company was founded in 2009 and is based in San Francisco, California.

About Autohome

Autohome Inc. operates as an online destination for automobile consumers in the People’s Republic of China. The company delivers interactive content and tools to automobile consumers through its three websites, autohome.com.cn, che168.com, and ttpai.cn on PCs, mobile devices, mobile applications, and mini apps. It provides media services, including automaker advertising services and regional marketing campaigns; and leads generation services comprising dealer subscription services, advertising services for individual dealers, and used automobile listing and other platform-based services. The company offers Autohome Mall, an online transaction platform; and online bidding platform for used automobiles, as well as collects commissions for facilitating transactions of auto-financing and insurance products on its platform. The company was formerly known as Sequel Limited and changed its name to Autohome Inc. in October 2011. Autohome Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.