Comparing LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) and Lesaka Technologies (NASDAQ:LSAK)

LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) and Lesaka Technologies (NASDAQ:LSAK) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.8% of LiveRamp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.2% of Lesaka Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of LiveRamp shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Lesaka Technologies shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

LiveRamp has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lesaka Technologies has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares LiveRamp and Lesaka Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LiveRamp	5.15%	4.44%	3.38%
Lesaka Technologies	-14.02%	-47.06%	-13.44%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for LiveRamp and Lesaka Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LiveRamp	1	3	2	1	2.43
Lesaka Technologies	2	0	0	0	1.00

LiveRamp presently has a consensus target price of $43.50, suggesting a potential upside of 58.64%. Given LiveRamp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe LiveRamp is more favorable than Lesaka Technologies.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares LiveRamp and Lesaka Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LiveRamp	$745.58 million	2.34	-$810,000.00	$0.61	44.95
Lesaka Technologies	$328.70 million	1.17	-$87.50 million	($1.07)	-4.29

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

Summary

LiveRamp beats Lesaka Technologies on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LiveRamp

LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., a technology company, operates a data collaboration platform in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates LiveRamp Data Collaboration platform enables an organization to unify customer and prospect data to build a single view of the customer in a way that protects consumer privacy. Its platform supports various people-based marketing solutions, including data collaboration, activation, measurement and analytics, identity, and data marketplace. The company sells its solutions to enterprise marketers, agencies, marketing technology providers, publishers, and data providers in various industry verticals, such as financial, insurance and investment services, retail, automotive, telecommunications, high tech, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, travel, entertainment, and non-profit. The company was formerly known as Acxiom Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. in October 2018. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Lesaka Technologies

Lesaka Technologies, Inc. operates as a Fintech company that utilizes its proprietary banking and payment technologies to deliver financial services solutions to merchants (B2B) and consumers (B2C) in Southern Africa. It offers cash management solutions, growth capital, card acquiring, bill payment technologies, and value-added services to formal and informal retail merchants, as well as banking, lending, and insurance solutions to consumers across Southern Africa. The company also engages in the sale of POS devices, SIM cards, and other consumables; and license of rights to use certain technology developed by the company, as well as offers related technology services. The company was formerly known as Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. and changed its name to Lesaka Technologies, Inc. in May 2022. Lesaka Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.