Amplitude (NASDAQ:AMPL) versus MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) Head to Head Contrast

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) and Amplitude (NASDAQ:AMPL) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for MediaAlpha and Amplitude, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MediaAlpha	1	2	4	0	2.43
Amplitude	1	1	9	0	2.73

MediaAlpha currently has a consensus price target of $12.90, suggesting a potential upside of 54.21%. Amplitude has a consensus price target of $12.44, suggesting a potential upside of 91.75%. Given Amplitude’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Amplitude is more favorable than MediaAlpha.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MediaAlpha	3.37%	-147.82%	21.12%
Amplitude	-25.11%	-34.98%	-20.46%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.2% of Amplitude shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.7% of MediaAlpha shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 21.6% of Amplitude shares are owned by 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 MediaAlpha and Amplitude”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MediaAlpha	$1.11 billion	0.47	$25.62 million	$0.64	13.07
Amplitude	$343.21 million	1.96	-$88.54 million	($0.67)	-9.69

MediaAlpha has higher revenue and earnings than Amplitude. Amplitude 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

MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.16, suggesting that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Amplitude has a beta of 1.43, suggesting that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Amplitude beats MediaAlpha on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Amplitude

Amplitude, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides a digital analytics platform that analyzes customer behavior in the United States and internationally. It offers Amplitude Analytics, which provides real-time product data and reconstructed user visits; Amplitude Experiment, a solution that allows teams to test new capabilities and safely roll out new features; Amplitude CDP, an insight-driven solution that encompasses the data infrastructure, audience management, and data streaming capabilities; and Amplitude Session Replay used by product, marketing, and data teams to understand user behavior, diagnose product issues, and improve product outcomes. The company also provides customer support services related to initial implementation setup, ongoing support, and application training. It delivers its application over the Internet as a subscription service using a software-as-a-service model. The company was formerly known as Sonalight, Inc. and changed its name to Amplitude, Inc. in December 2014. Amplitude, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.