United Internet (OTCMKTS:UDIRF) versus Ziff Davis (NASDAQ:ZD) Critical Contrast

Ziff Davis (NASDAQ:ZD) and United Internet (OTCMKTS:UDIRF) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Ziff Davis and United Internet, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ziff Davis	1	5	3	0	2.22
United Internet	0	0	2	0	3.00

Ziff Davis presently has a consensus price target of $56.62, suggesting a potential upside of 1.66%. Given Ziff Davis’ higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Ziff Davis is more favorable than United Internet.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Ziff Davis and United Internet”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ziff Davis	$1.45 billion	1.32	$47.35 million	$17.67	3.15
United Internet	$6.85 billion	0.77	$114.57 million	($0.34)	-80.40

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

Volatility & Risk

Ziff Davis has a beta of 1.09, suggesting that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, United Internet has a beta of 0.11, suggesting that its stock price is 89% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Ziff Davis and United Internet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ziff Davis	48.57%	10.73%	5.54%
United Internet	N/A	N/A	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

99.8% of Ziff Davis shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.4% of Ziff Davis shares are owned 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.

Summary

Ziff Davis beats United Internet on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ziff Davis

Ziff Davis, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a digital media and internet company in the United States and internationally. The company offers PCMag, an online resource for laboratory-based product reviews, technology news, buying guides, and research papers; Mashable for publishing technology and culture content; Spiceworks Ziff Davis provides digital content of IT products and services; retailMeNot, a savings destination platform; Offers.com, a coupon and deals website; and event-based properties, including BlackFriday.com, TheBlackFriday.com, BestBlackFriday.com, and DealsofAmerica.com. It also offers gaming and entertainment content under the IGN Entertainment and Humble Bundle brands; and information on internet connectivity under the Ookla, Ekahau, Downdetector, and RootMetrics brands. The company also offers digital content and information services for health and wellness consumers under the Everyday Health, DailyOM, Lose It!, Diabetes Daily, Castle Connolly, and Migraine Again brands; pregnancy and parenting content under the BabyCenter, Emma's Diary, and What to Expect brands; and Medpage Today that delivers medical news. In addition, the company offers PRIME Education, a medical education program for healthcare professionals; and Health eCareers, a digital portal for healthcare professionals. Further, it provides endpoint and email security, security awareness training, secure backup and file sharing, and virtual private network solutions under the IPVanish, VIPRE, Livedrive, Inspired eLearning, and SugarSync brands; and email marketing and delivery solutions, search engine optimization tools, and voice and text communication services under the Campaigner, iContact, SMTP, Kickbox, MOZ Pro, MOZ Local, Stat Analytics, eVoice, and Line2 brands. The company was formerly known as j2 Global, Inc. and changed its name to Ziff Davis, Inc. in October 2021. Ziff Davis, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About United Internet

United Internet AG, through its subsidiaries, operates as an Internet service provider worldwide. The company operates through Consumer Access, Business Access, Consumer Applications, and Business Applications segments. It offers landline-based broadband and mobile internet products, including home networks, online storage, telephony, and IPTV for private users; and telecommunication products ranging from fiber-optic direct connections to tailored ICT solutions, which include voice, data, and network solutions, as well as infrastructure services to national and international carriers and ISPs. The company also provides applications and services for home users, such as personal information management applications comprising email, to-do lists, appointments, and addresses; and online cloud storage, as well as domains and website solutions. In addition, it provides business applications for freelancers and small to medium enterprises, such as domains, websites, web hosting, servers, cloud solutions, e-shops, group work, online cloud storage, and office software. It offers its access products through the yourfone, smartmobile.de, 1&1, and 1&1 Versatel brands; and applications through GMX, mail.com, WEB.DE, home.pl, Arsys, STRATO, IONOS, Fasthosts, we22, InterNetX, united-domains, and World4You brand names. In addition, the company offers customers professional services in the fields of active domain management; performance-based advertising and sales services under the Sedo brand name; online advertising services under the United Internet Media brand name; and white-label website builder services under the we22 brand, as well as sells IT hardware. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Montabaur, Germany.