Critical Survey: MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) & BuzzFeed (NASDAQ:BZFD)

BuzzFeed (NASDAQ:BZFD) and MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Risk & Volatility

BuzzFeed has a beta of 3.78, meaning that its share price is 278% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.16, meaning that its share price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for BuzzFeed and MediaAlpha, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BuzzFeed	1	1	0	0	1.50
MediaAlpha	0	5	3	1	2.56

BuzzFeed presently has a consensus price target of $1.00, suggesting a potential downside of 7.41%. MediaAlpha has a consensus price target of $14.29, suggesting a potential upside of 22.62%. Given MediaAlpha’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MediaAlpha is more favorable than BuzzFeed.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

37.6% of BuzzFeed shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are held by institutional investors. 15.6% of BuzzFeed shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.6% of MediaAlpha shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares BuzzFeed and MediaAlpha’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BuzzFeed	-35.83%	-113.86%	-34.00%
MediaAlpha	7.94%	-301.42%	28.23%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares BuzzFeed and MediaAlpha”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BuzzFeed	$185.27 million	0.49	-$57.72 million	($1.54)	-0.70
MediaAlpha	$1.11 billion	0.64	$25.62 million	$1.62	7.19

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

Summary

MediaAlpha beats BuzzFeed on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed, Inc., a digital media company, distributes content across owned and operated, as well as third-party platforms. The company offers BuzzFeed, a go-to authority for entertainment, pop culture, and Internet with articles, lists, quizzes, videos, and original series; BuzzFeed News, a pocket friendly newsroom; Tasty, a platform for food content; HuffPost, media platform for news, politics, opinion, entertainment, features, and lifestyle content. It also provides display, programmatic, and video advertising on its owned and operated sites and applications. BuzzFeed, Inc. is headquartered in New York, New York.

About MediaAlpha

MediaAlpha, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates an insurance customer acquisition platform in the United States. It optimizes customer acquisition in various verticals of property and casualty insurance, health insurance, and life insurance. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.