Financial Survey: Enova International (NYSE:ENVA) & Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)

Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) and Enova International (NYSE:ENVA) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

63.0% of Upstart shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.4% of Enova International shares are held by institutional investors. 17.3% of Upstart shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 8.4% of Enova International shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Upstart has a beta of 2.29, meaning that its stock price is 129% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Enova International has a beta of 1.22, meaning that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Upstart and Enova International, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upstart	2	6	8	0	2.38
Enova International	0	0	8	1	3.11

Upstart currently has a consensus target price of $44.40, indicating a potential upside of 42.81%. Enova International has a consensus target price of $247.83, indicating a potential downside of 1.77%. Given Upstart’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Upstart is more favorable than Enova International.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Upstart and Enova International”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upstart	$1.04 billion	2.90	$53.60 million	$0.49	63.45
Enova International	$3.15 billion	1.99	$308.39 million	$13.49	18.70

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

Profitability

This table compares Upstart and Enova International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upstart	4.84%	7.13%	1.82%
Enova International	10.31%	26.66%	5.55%

Summary

Enova International beats Upstart on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Upstart

Upstart Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) lending platform in the United States. Its platform includes personal loans, automotive retail and refinance loans, home equity lines of credit, and small dollar loans that connects consumer demand for loans to its to bank and credit unions. Upstart Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.

About Enova International

Enova International, Inc., a technology and analytics company, provides online financial services in the United States, Brazil, and internationally. The company provides installment loans; line of credit accounts; CSO programs, including arranging loans with independent third-party lenders and assisting in the preparation of loan applications and loan documents; and bank programs, such as marketing services and loan servicing for near-prime unsecured consumer installment loan. It offers money transfer services. It markets its financing products under the CashNetUSA, NetCredit, OnDeck, Headway Capital, Simplic, and Pangea names. The company was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.