Contrasting CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ) & MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX)

CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ) and MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for CBIZ and MediaAlpha, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CBIZ	0	0	1	0	3.00
MediaAlpha	0	1	6	0	2.86

CBIZ presently has a consensus target price of $86.00, indicating a potential downside of 1.67%. MediaAlpha has a consensus target price of $21.57, indicating a potential upside of 71.20%. Given MediaAlpha’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MediaAlpha is more favorable than CBIZ.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

87.4% of CBIZ shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are held by institutional investors. 5.3% of CBIZ shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.5% 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares CBIZ and MediaAlpha”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CBIZ	$1.59 billion	2.76	$120.97 million	$2.36	37.06
MediaAlpha	$388.15 million	2.16	-$40.42 million	$0.17	74.12

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

Risk and Volatility

CBIZ has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CBIZ	7.08%	15.12%	6.16%
MediaAlpha	1.41%	-11.98%	5.19%

Summary

CBIZ beats MediaAlpha on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CBIZ

CBIZ, Inc. provides financial, insurance, and advisory services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Financial Services, Benefits and Insurance Services, and National Practices segments. The Financial Services segment offers accounting and tax, financial advisory, valuation, risk and advisory, and government healthcare consulting services. The Benefits and Insurance Services provides employee benefits consulting, payroll/human capital management, property and casualty insurance, and retirement and investment services. The National Practices segment offers information technology managed networking and hardware, and health care consulting services. The company primarily serves small and medium-sized businesses, as well as individuals, governmental entities, and not-for-profit enterprises. CBIZ, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Independence, Ohio.

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.