Head to Head Analysis: Vroom (NASDAQ:VRM) & PROG (NYSE:PRG)

PROG (NYSE:PRG) and Vroom (NASDAQ:VRM) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for PROG and Vroom, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PROG	0	3	6	1	2.80
Vroom	1	0	0	0	1.00

PROG presently has a consensus price target of $49.44, suggesting a potential upside of 24.45%. Given PROG’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe PROG is more favorable than Vroom.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares PROG and Vroom”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PROG	$2.41 billion	0.66	$146.79 million	$3.62	10.97
Vroom	$178.83 million	0.27	-$7.96 million	($11.12)	-0.85

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

Profitability

This table compares PROG and Vroom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PROG	5.57%	21.88%	9.15%
Vroom	-32.38%	-47.65%	-5.59%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

97.9% of PROG shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 25.8% of Vroom shares are held by institutional investors. 3.7% of PROG shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Vroom shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

PROG has a beta of 1.79, indicating that its share price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Vroom has a beta of 1.23, indicating that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

PROG beats Vroom on 15 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PROG

PROG Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:PRG) is a financial technology holding company based in Salt Lake City, Utah with three business segments: Progressive Leasing, which offers lease-to-own transactions primarily to credit-challenged consumers through e-commerce and point-of-sale retail partners, via online, mobile, and in-store solutions; Vive Financial, which provides consumers who may not qualify for traditional prime lending with a variety of second-look, revolving credit products through private label and branded credit cards; and Four Technologies, which provides consumers of all credit backgrounds Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options through four interest-free installments via its platform, Four.

About Vroom

Vroom, Inc. operates as an automotive finance company. The company offers vehicle financing to its customers through third party dealers under the UACC brand. It also provides artificial intelligence powered analytics and digital services to dealers, automotive financial services companies, and others in the automotive industry for automotive retail. The company was formerly known as Auto America, Inc. and changed its name to Vroom, Inc. in July 2015. Vroom, Inc. was incorporated in 2012 and is based in Houston, Texas.