CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) & Evolv Technologies (NASDAQ:EVLV) Head-To-Head Analysis

Evolv Technologies (NASDAQ:EVLV) and CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Evolv Technologies and CoStar Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Evolv Technologies	-43.76%	-55.11%	-21.55%
CoStar Group	0.66%	2.45%	1.99%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

66.7% of Evolv Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.6% of CoStar Group shares are held by institutional investors. 11.3% of Evolv Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of CoStar Group shares are held by company 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

Evolv Technologies has a beta of 1.85, meaning that its stock price is 85% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CoStar Group has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Evolv Technologies and CoStar Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Evolv Technologies	1	1	4	1	2.71
CoStar Group	3	7	13	1	2.50

Evolv Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $9.13, indicating a potential upside of 50.08%. CoStar Group has a consensus target price of $82.50, indicating a potential upside of 29.27%. Given Evolv Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Evolv Technologies is more favorable than CoStar Group.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Evolv Technologies and CoStar Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Evolv Technologies	$103.86 million	10.22	-$54.02 million	($0.37)	-16.43
CoStar Group	$2.74 billion	9.89	$138.70 million	$0.05	1,276.40

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

Summary

CoStar Group beats Evolv Technologies on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Evolv Technologies

Evolv Technologies Holdings, Inc. provides artificial intelligence (AI)-based weapons detection for security screening in the United States and internationally. Its products include Evolv Express, a touchless security screening system designed to detect firearms, improvised explosive devices, and tactical knives; and Evolv Insights that provides self-serve access, insights regarding visitor flow and arrival curves, location specific performance, system detection performance, and alarm statistics. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

About CoStar Group

CoStar Group, Inc. provides information, analytics, and online marketplace services to the commercial real estate, hospitality, residential, and related professionals industries in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company offers CoStar Property that provides inventory of office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, and student housing properties and land; CoStar Sales, a robust database of comparable commercial real estate sales transactions; CoStar Market Analytics to view and report on aggregated market and submarket trends; and CoStar Tenant, an online business-to-business prospecting and analytical tool that provides tenant information. It also provides Leasing, a tool to capture, manage, and maintain lease data; CoStar Lease Analysis; Public Record, a searchable database of commercially zoned parcels; CoStar Real Estate Manager, a real estate lease administration, portfolio management, and lease accounting compliance software solution; and CoStar Risk Analytics and CoStar Investment. In addition, it offers apartment marketing sites, such as ApartmentFinder.com, ForRent.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, WestsideRentals.com, AFTER55.com, CorporateHousing.com, ForRentUniversity.com, Apartamentos.com, and Off Campus Partners; LoopNet Premium Lister; LoopNet Diamond, Platinum, and Gold Ads; LandsofAmerica.com, LandAndFarm.com, and LandWatch.com for rural land for-sale; BizBuySell.com, BizQuest.com, and FindaFranchise.com for operating businesses and franchises for-sale; Ten-X, an online auction platform for commercial real estate; and HomeSnap, an online and mobile software platform, as well as Homes.com, a homes for sale listings site. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.