Analyzing Acuity (NYSE:AYI) & Cardlytics (NASDAQ:CDLX)

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) and Cardlytics (NASDAQ:CDLX) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Acuity and Cardlytics, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Acuity	0	4	5	0	2.56
Cardlytics	2	1	0	0	1.33

Acuity currently has a consensus price target of $369.17, suggesting a potential upside of 28.27%. Cardlytics has a consensus price target of $1.00, suggesting a potential upside of 44.40%. Given Cardlytics’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cardlytics is more favorable than Acuity.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Acuity and Cardlytics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Acuity	$4.35 billion	2.01	$396.60 million	$13.64	21.10
Cardlytics	$233.27 million	0.17	-$103.49 million	($1.77)	-0.39

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

Profitability

This table compares Acuity and Cardlytics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Acuity	9.37%	20.74%	12.20%
Cardlytics	-46.03%	-956.56%	-34.57%

Volatility & Risk

Acuity has a beta of 1.32, meaning that its share price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cardlytics has a beta of 0.67, meaning that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.2% of Acuity shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.1% of Cardlytics shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Acuity shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.9% of Cardlytics shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Acuity beats Cardlytics on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Acuity

Acuity Brands, Inc. provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch. This segment serves electrical distributors, retail home improvement centers, electric utilities, national accounts, original equipment manufacturers, digital retailers, lighting showrooms, and energy service companies. The ISG segment offers building management solutions, such as products for controlling heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, shades, refrigeration, and building access that deliver end-to-end optimization of those building systems; and building management software that enhances building system management and automates labor intensive tasks. This segment serves system integrators, as well as retail stores, airports, and enterprise campuses. The company offers its products and solutions under the Atrius, Distech Controls, and KE2 Therm Solutions brands. Acuity Brands, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics, Inc. operates an advertising platform in the United States and the United Kingdom. It offers Cardlytics platform, a proprietary native bank advertising channel that enables marketers to reach customers through their network of financial institution partners through digital channels, such as online, mobile applications, email, and various real-time notifications; and Bridg platform, a customer data platform which utilizes point-of-sale data and enables marketers to perform analytics and targeted loyalty marketing, as well as measure the impact of their marketing. The company was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.