Reviewing Vasta Platform (NASDAQ:VSTA) & KLDiscovery (OTCMKTS:KLDI)

Vasta Platform (NASDAQ:VSTA) and KLDiscovery (OTCMKTS:KLDI) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Vasta Platform and KLDiscovery”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vasta Platform	$1.74 billion	0.23	$90.19 million	$1.02	4.80
KLDiscovery	$345.80 million	0.00	-$34.81 million	($1.32)	-0.00

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Vasta Platform and KLDiscovery, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vasta Platform	1	1	0	0	1.50
KLDiscovery	0	0	0	0	0.00

Profitability

This table compares Vasta Platform and KLDiscovery’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vasta Platform	27.31%	1.53%	1.06%
KLDiscovery	N/A	N/A	N/A

Insider and Institutional Ownership

15.8% of Vasta Platform shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.4% of KLDiscovery shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of Vasta Platform shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 31.6% of KLDiscovery shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Vasta Platform has a beta of -0.29, meaning that its share price is 129% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, KLDiscovery has a beta of -0.87, meaning that its share price is 187% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Vasta Platform beats KLDiscovery on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Vasta Platform

Vasta Platform Limited provides educational printed and digital solutions to private schools operating in the K-12 education sector in Brazil. The company offers digital and printed textbooks, teacher handbooks, exercise books, multidisciplinary subject books, and student evaluations; and PAR platform that allows schools to select their preferred books and materials and follow their own specific teaching methods. It also provides traditional learning systems under the Anglo, Pitágoras, Rede Cristã de Educação, Maxi Ético, Fibonacci, Mackenzie, and Amplia brands; ongoing training for educators; and services to partner schools, including consulting services for school management and the organization of events, and a proprietary and differentiated evaluation system for partner schools and their students. In addition, the company offers Plurall that provides a digital learning experience and allows for tailor-made adjustments for each school; Plurall Maestro that develops digital solutions to help educators in planning and conducting classes; PROFS, a teacher training program; O Líder em Mim, a program with content, methodology, teaching material, and training to develop leadership; English Stars, an English educational platform; EduAll, a bilingual program to enhance its current solutions; Plurall Olímpico, a content for scientific competitions; MindMakers to develop leadership, collaboration, and persistence through multidisciplinary problem-solving exercises; Matific that provides interactive learning environments and adaptable worksheets; Plurall Store; Plurall Adapta for adaptive learning sessions; Plurall MeuProf to connect students with professors for private tutoring; Prepara to prepare students for external assessments; Leader in Me to develop socio-emotional competencies of K12 students; Education Systems, a structured teaching system for K12 students and teachers; and Prepara ENEM. Vasta Platform Limited was founded in 1966 and is based in São Paulo, Brazil.

About KLDiscovery

KLDiscovery Inc. provides eDiscovery, information governance, and data recovery solutions to corporations, law firms, insurance companies, and individuals worldwide. The company offers Nebula, an end-to-end eDiscovery solution that facilitates smarter ways to cull, process, review, and manage documents in an intuitive interface; Client Portal for consolidated visualizations and reporting for portfolio intelligence; KLD Processing, a proprietary processing application; ReadySuite to perform extensive QC on a production, normalize inbound submissions, or spot check the work of a colleague or supplier; Relativity for relativity enhancements and state-of-the-art HIVE infrastructure; Nebula Processing to process data with a higher degree of quality; and Nebula AI, a technology assisted review tool combined with a deep bench of experts, as well as managed services, remote document review, and managed document review services. It also provides computer forensics, ransomware data recovery, remote collection manager, data recovery, and data collection services. In addition, the company offers Nebula Archive, an advanced archiving solution for modern enterprise data management needs at scale; Nebula Intelligent Archive, a digital communications compliance platform with machine learning and analytics; and Office 365 Migration and Management, as well as information governance and advisory services. Further, it provides Ontrack EasyRecovery that allows clients to perform precise file recovery of data lost through deletion, reformatting, and various other data loss scenarios; Ontrack PowerControls, a granular restore software product; email extraction, tape solutions, and data destruction solutions; and professional services. KLDiscovery Inc. was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.