Reviewing Pearson (NYSE:PSO) and Beamr Imaging (NASDAQ:BMR)

Pearson (NYSE:PSO) and Beamr Imaging (NASDAQ:BMR) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

2.1% of Pearson shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.7% of Beamr Imaging shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Pearson shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Pearson has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Beamr Imaging has a beta of 3.68, indicating that its stock price is 268% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Pearson and Beamr Imaging, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pearson	0	1	1	1	3.00
Beamr Imaging	0	0	0	0	0.00

Pearson presently has a consensus price target of $18.00, suggesting a potential upside of 26.76%. Given Pearson’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Pearson is more favorable than Beamr Imaging.

Profitability

This table compares Pearson and Beamr Imaging’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pearson	N/A	N/A	N/A
Beamr Imaging	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Pearson and Beamr Imaging”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pearson	$4.54 billion	2.02	$554.61 million	$0.94	15.11
Beamr Imaging	$3.06 million	N/A	-$3.35 million	N/A	N/A

Pearson has higher revenue and earnings than Beamr Imaging.

Summary

Pearson beats Beamr Imaging on 8 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pearson

Pearson plc offers educational courseware, assessments, and services in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, the Asia Pacific, other European countries, and internationally. The company operates through five segments: Assessment & Qualifications, Virtual Learning, English Language Learning, Workforce Skills, and Higher Education. The Assessment & Qualifications segment offers Pearson VUE, US student assessment, clinical assessment, UK GCSE, and A levels and international academic qualifications and associated courseware. The Virtual Learning segment provides virtual schools and online program management services. The English Language Learning segment offers Pearson test of English, institutional courseware, and English online solutions. The Workforce Skills offers BTEC, GED, TalentLens, Faethm, Credly, Pearson college, and apprenticeships. The Higher Education segment engages in the US, Canadian, and international higher education courseware businesses. The company was founded in 1844 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

About Beamr Imaging

Beamr Imaging Ltd. provides video encoding, transcoding, and optimization solutions in the United States, Israel, and internationally. It offers a suite of video compression software encoder solutions, including Beamr 4 H.264, Beamr 4X H.264 content adaptive, Beamr 5 HEVC, and Beamr 5X HEVC content adaptive encoders; Beamr JPEGmini photo optimization software solutions for reducing joint photographic experts group file sizes; and Beamr Silicon IP block, a hardware solution for integration into dedicated video encoding application-specific integrated circuits, graphics processing units, and application processors. The company serves tier one over-the-top platforms, content distributors, video streaming platforms, and Hollywood studios. The company was formerly known as I.C.V.T Ltd. and changed its name to Beamr Imaging Ltd. in January 2015. Beamr Imaging Ltd. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel.