Financial Review: ZW Data Action Technologies (NASDAQ:CNET) versus National CineMedia (NASDAQ:NCMI)

National CineMedia (NASDAQ:NCMI) and ZW Data Action Technologies (NASDAQ:CNET) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for National CineMedia and ZW Data Action Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
National CineMedia	2	2	3	0	2.14
ZW Data Action Technologies	1	0	0	0	1.00

National CineMedia presently has a consensus price target of $6.60, suggesting a potential upside of 68.37%. Given National CineMedia’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe National CineMedia is more favorable than ZW Data Action Technologies.

Volatility and Risk

National CineMedia has a beta of 1.83, suggesting that its share price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ZW Data Action Technologies has a beta of 0.7, suggesting that its share price is 30% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares National CineMedia and ZW Data Action Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
National CineMedia	-8.62%	-3.51%	-2.58%
ZW Data Action Technologies	-50.16%	-100.39%	-39.07%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares National CineMedia and ZW Data Action Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
National CineMedia	$236.30 million	1.56	-$22.30 million	($0.15)	-26.13
ZW Data Action Technologies	$7.69 million	0.82	-$3.76 million	($1.76)	-1.09

ZW Data Action Technologies has lower revenue, but higher earnings than National CineMedia. National CineMedia is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ZW Data Action Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

69.5% of National CineMedia shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of ZW Data Action Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.3% of National CineMedia shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.2% of ZW Data Action Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

National CineMedia beats ZW Data Action Technologies on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About National CineMedia

National CineMedia, Inc., through its subsidiary, National CineMedia, LLC, operates cinema advertising network in North America. It engages in the sale of advertising to national, regional, and local businesses in Noovie, a cinema advertising and entertainment show seen on movie screens; and sells advertising on its Lobby Entertainment Network, a series of strategically-placed screens located in movie theater lobbies, as well as other forms of advertising and promotions in theatre lobbies. The company also sells online and mobile advertising through its Noovie Audience Accelerator product across a suite of Noovie digital properties, such as Name That Movie and Noovie Trivia app to reach entertainment audiences beyond the theater. It offers its services to third-party theater circuits under long-term network affiliate agreements. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Centennial, Colorado.

About ZW Data Action Technologies

ZW Data Action Technologies Inc., through its subsidiaries, offers omni-channel advertising, precision marketing, and data analysis management systems in the People’s Republic of China. The company offers Internet advertising, precision marketing, and related data services to small and medium enterprises through its Internet portals, including 28.com and liansuo.com that provide advertisers with tools to build sales channels in the form of franchisees, sales agents, distributors, and/or resellers. It also develops and operates blockchain technology-based products and services, as well as blockchain-based SaaS services that provides one-stop blockchain-powered enterprise management solutions in forms of NFT generations, data record, share, and storage module subscriptions, etc. In addition, the company offers other e-commerce O2O advertising, and marketing and related value-added technical services. Additionally, it offers online-content production, distribution, promotion, and live streamer training and management services. The company was formerly known as ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to ZW Data Action Technologies Inc. in October 2020. Data Action Technologies Inc. was founded in 2003 and is based in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.