Contrasting Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) & Red Violet (NASDAQ:RDVT)

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) and Red Violet (NASDAQ:RDVT) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability and valuation.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Criteo and Red Violet, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Criteo	1	3	5	0	2.44
Red Violet	0	0	1	0	3.00

Criteo presently has a consensus price target of $40.00, suggesting a potential upside of 87.71%. Red Violet has a consensus price target of $60.00, suggesting a potential upside of 18.53%. Given Criteo’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Criteo is more favorable than Red Violet.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Criteo and Red Violet”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Criteo	$1.93 billion	0.64	$111.57 million	$2.39	8.92
Red Violet	$75.19 million	9.41	$7.00 million	$0.60	84.37

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

Risk & Volatility

Criteo has a beta of 0.42, indicating that its stock price is 58% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Red Violet has a beta of 1.7, indicating that its stock price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

94.3% of Criteo shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.6% of Red Violet shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Criteo shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.9% of Red Violet shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Criteo and Red Violet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Criteo	7.10%	16.91%	8.53%
Red Violet	10.57%	9.89%	9.05%

About Criteo

Criteo S.A., a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties. It also offers Criteo AI Engine solutions, including lookalike finder, recommendation, and predictive bidding algorithms; recommendation algorithms, dynamic creative optimization+, sponsored product placement algorithms, and other product placement algorithms. The company's technology comprises data synchronization, storage, and analysis of distributed computing infrastructure in various geographies, as well as fast data collection and retrieval using multi-layered caching infrastructure; and experimentation platform, an offline/online testing platform to enhance the capabilities and effectiveness of prediction models. In addition, it provides Criteo Marketing Solutions that allow commerce companies to address various marketing goals by engaging their consumers with personalized ads across the web, mobile, and offline store environments; and Criteo Retail Media solutions, which allows retailers to generate advertising revenues from consumer brands, and/or to drive sales for themselves, by monetizing their data and audiences through personalized ads, either on their own digital property or on the open Internet. Further, the company offers real-time advertising technology and trading infrastructure, delivering advanced media buying, selling, and packaging capabilities for media owners, agencies, performance advertisers, and third-party AdTech platforms. It serves companies in digital retail, travel, and classifieds sectors. Criteo S.A. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

About Red Violet

Red Violet, Inc., a software and services company, specializes in proprietary technologies and applying analytical capabilities to deliver identity intelligence in the United States. It offers idiCORE, an investigative solution used to address various organizational challenges, which include due diligence, risk mitigation, identity authentication, fraud detection and prevention, customer acquisition, and regulatory compliance; and FOREWARN, an app-based solution that provides instant knowledge before face-to-face engagement with a consumer, as well as helps professionals to identify and mitigate risk. The company serves financial services, insurance, healthcare, retail, telecommunication companies, law enforcement and government agencies, collections, law, corporate security, and investigative firms. It markets its products and services through value-added distributors, resellers, and strategic partners; and trade shows and seminars, advertising, public relations, distribution of sales literature, and product specifications and ongoing communication with prospective customers, distributors, resellers, strategic partners, and installed base of current customers, as well as through direct sales. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.