Critical Comparison: Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) vs. Vivid Seats (NASDAQ:SEAT)

Vivid Seats (NASDAQ:SEAT) and Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) are both communication services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Volatility & Risk

Vivid Seats has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pinterest has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

39.9% of Vivid Seats shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.8% of Pinterest shares are held by institutional investors. 60.5% of Vivid Seats shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of Pinterest shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Vivid Seats and Pinterest’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vivid Seats	-60.26%	-211.26%	0.91%
Pinterest	5.46%	7.49%	5.62%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Vivid Seats and Pinterest, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vivid Seats	2	6	2	0	2.00
Pinterest	0	19	18	0	2.49

Vivid Seats currently has a consensus target price of $10.27, suggesting a potential upside of 166.67%. Pinterest has a consensus target price of $27.90, suggesting a potential upside of 50.36%. Given Vivid Seats’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Vivid Seats is more favorable than Pinterest.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Vivid Seats and Pinterest”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vivid Seats	$570.78 million	0.08	-$429.30 million	($45.51)	-0.08
Pinterest	$4.22 billion	2.46	$416.86 million	$0.34	54.58

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

Summary

Pinterest beats Vivid Seats on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vivid Seats

Vivid Seats Inc. operates an online ticket marketplace in the United States, Canada, and Japan. The company operates in two segments, Marketplace and Resale. The Marketplace segment acts as an intermediary between event ticket buyers and sellers; processes ticket sales on its website and mobile applications through its distribution partners; and sells tickets for sports, concerts, theater events, and other live events. This segment offers Skybox, a proprietary enterprise resource planning tool that helps ticket sellers manage ticket inventories, adjust pricing, and fulfill orders across multiple ticket resale marketplaces; and Vivid Picks daily fantasy sports that allows users to partake in contests by making picks from various sport and player matchups. The Resale segment acquires tickets to resell on secondary ticket marketplaces; and provides internal research and development support for Skybox and to deliver seller software and tools. The company was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About Pinterest

Pinterest, Inc. operates as a visual search and discovery platform in the United States and internationally. Its platform allows people to find ideas, such as recipes, home and style inspiration, and others; and to search, save, and shop the ideas. The company was formerly known as Cold Brew Labs Inc. and changed its name to Pinterest, Inc. in April 2012. Pinterest, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.