Contrasting Tucows (NASDAQ:TCX) & Betawave (OTCMKTS:BWAV)

Betawave (OTCMKTS:BWAV) and Tucows (NASDAQ:TCX) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation and risk.

Risk & Volatility

Betawave has a beta of -7.39, meaning that its share price is 839% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Tucows has a beta of 0.88, meaning that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.6% of Tucows shares are held by institutional investors. 8.4% of Tucows shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Betawave and Tucows, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Betawave	0	0	0	0	0.00
Tucows	1	0	0	0	1.00

Given Betawave’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Betawave is more favorable than Tucows.

Profitability

This table compares Betawave and Tucows’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Betawave	N/A	N/A	N/A
Tucows	-20.08%	N/A	-9.18%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Betawave and Tucows”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Betawave	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Tucows	$390.30 million	0.38	-$75.82 million	($7.10)	-1.89

Betawave has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Tucows.

Summary

Tucows beats Betawave on 5 of the 8 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Betawave

Betawave Corporation provides online advertising services for a portfolio of websites. It delivers advertising to audiences of highly-engaged users. The company has a network of websites in three online categories: immersive casual gaming, virtual world, and social play and entertainment. It specializes in helping brand marketers reach the attentive audiences on various Web sites through ad formats. It serves advertisers in various categories, including consumer packaged goods, entertainment, consumer electronics and software, and retail. The company's advertising in the publisher sites includes direct sales category comprising IAB graphical advertising and rich media/immersive advertising; and remnant inventory category, which are advertising inventory on a website that is not sold directly to an advertiser. It sells its inventory and marketing services through a sales and marketing organization in the United States. The company was formerly known as GoFish Corporation and changed its name to Betawave Corporation in January 2009. Betawave Corporation was incorporated in 2003 and is based in San Francisco, California.

About Tucows

Tucows Inc. provides network access, domain name registration, email, mobile telephony, and other Internet services in North America and Europe. It operates in three segments: Ting, Wavelo and Tucows Domains. The Ting segment provides fiber and fixed wireless internet services. The Wavelo segment offers individual developer tools, subscription, billing management, network orchestration, and provisioning services. This segment also provides billing solutions under Platypus brand. The Tucows Domains segment offers name registration, as well as value added services under OpenSRS, eNom, Ascio, EPAG, and Hover brands. The company was formerly known as Infonautics, Inc. and changed its name to Tucows Inc. in August 2001. Tucows Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.