Contrasting Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) & HIVE Digital Technologies (NASDAQ:HIVE)

HIVE Digital Technologies (NASDAQ:HIVE) and Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings and risk.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares HIVE Digital Technologies and Synchrony Financial”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HIVE Digital Technologies	$124.87 million	3.69	-$51.21 million	($0.14)	-23.64
Synchrony Financial	$15.98 billion	1.63	$2.24 billion	$7.66	8.72

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for HIVE Digital Technologies and Synchrony Financial, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HIVE Digital Technologies	0	0	6	2	3.25
Synchrony Financial	0	6	15	1	2.77

HIVE Digital Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $7.42, suggesting a potential upside of 124.07%. Synchrony Financial has a consensus price target of $63.63, suggesting a potential downside of 4.72%. Given HIVE Digital Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe HIVE Digital Technologies is more favorable than Synchrony Financial.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

24.4% of HIVE Digital Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.5% of Synchrony Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.4% of HIVE Digital Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Synchrony Financial shares are owned by company 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.

Profitability

This table compares HIVE Digital Technologies and Synchrony Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HIVE Digital Technologies	-12.04%	-10.78%	-8.97%
Synchrony Financial	13.98%	16.64%	1.96%

Risk and Volatility

HIVE Digital Technologies has a beta of 3.39, indicating that its share price is 239% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Synchrony Financial has a beta of 1.64, indicating that its share price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Synchrony Financial beats HIVE Digital Technologies on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HIVE Digital Technologies

HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. operates as a cryptocurrency mining company in Canada, Sweden, and Iceland. The company engages in the mining and sale of digital currencies, including Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin, and other coins. It also operates data centers; and offers infrastructure solutions. The company was formerly known as HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. and changed its name to HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. in July 2023. HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

About Synchrony Financial

Synchrony Financial, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a consumer financial services company in the United States. It provides credit products, such as credit cards, commercial credit products, and consumer installment loans. The company also offers private label credit cards, dual co-brand and general purpose credit cards, short- and long-term installment loans, and consumer banking products; and deposit products, including certificates of deposit, individual retirement accounts, money market accounts, and savings accounts, and sweep and affinity deposits, as well as accepts deposits through third-party securities brokerage firms. In addition, it provides debt cancellation products to its credit card customers through online, mobile, and direct mail; and healthcare payments and financing solutions under the CareCredit and Walgreens brands; payments and financing solutions in the apparel, specialty retail, outdoor, music, and luxury industries, such as American Eagle, Dick's Sporting Goods, Guitar Center, Kawasaki, Pandora, Polaris, Suzuki, and Sweetwater. The company offers its credit products through programs established with a group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations, and healthcare service providers; and deposit products through various channels, such as digital and print. It serves digital, health and wellness, retail, home, auto, telecommunications, jewelry, pets, and other industries. The company was founded in 1932 and is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut.