Contrasting So-Young International (NASDAQ:SY) & JOYY (NASDAQ:JOYY)

So-Young International (NASDAQ:SY) and JOYY (NASDAQ:JOYY) are both communication services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for So-Young International and JOYY, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
So-Young International	1	0	0	0	1.00
JOYY	0	2	3	0	2.60

JOYY has a consensus price target of $80.50, indicating a potential upside of 9.87%. Given JOYY’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe JOYY is more favorable than So-Young International.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

35.3% of So-Young International shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.8% of JOYY shares are held by institutional investors. 16.7% of So-Young International shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 43.0% of JOYY shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares So-Young International and JOYY’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
So-Young International	-15.59%	-13.95%	-9.10%
JOYY	10.42%	3.67%	3.20%

Risk & Volatility

So-Young International has a beta of 2, meaning that its share price is 100% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, JOYY has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares So-Young International and JOYY”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
So-Young International	$1.66 billion	0.14	-$34.65 million	($0.36)	-6.33
JOYY	$2.12 billion	1.72	$2.10 billion	$4.31	17.00

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

Summary

JOYY beats So-Young International on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About So-Young International

So-Young International Inc. operates an online platform for consumption healthcare services in the People's Republic of China. The company offers So-Young Mobile App that offers users medical aesthetic knowledge and experience to reach an informed medical aesthetic treatment decision and make reservations for treatment with medical professionals and medical aesthetic institutions; So-Young Beauty which provides similar interfaces and functions as the mobile app, as well as serves as additional access points to the platform; and medical aesthetic community content through its website soyoung.com. It provides content in various media formats on its online platform generated by users, including professional generated, content from in-house editorial team that shares opinions on specific new medical procedures and trends; user generated content comprising Beauty Diaries that provides details about medical institution, doctor, price, and other information on the treatment; professional user generated, contents from the medical aesthetic influencers; and doctor generated, content from doctors to generate knowledge. In addition, the company offers consumption healthcare services, including dermatology, dentistry and orthodontics, physical examinations, gynecology, and postnatal care; reservation services; and software as a service. Further, it engages in research and development, production, sales, and agency of laser and other optoelectronic medical beauty equipment; manufacture and sells light therapy device, surgical laser device and other equipment; internet information and technology advisory; online medical treatment and consultation; management consulting; internet culture; micro finance services, as well as sells cosmetics products. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.

About JOYY

JOYY Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates social media platforms that offer users engaging and experience across various video and audio-based social platforms. The company operates Bigo Live, a live streaming platform that allows users to live stream specific moments, such as live talk with other users, make video calls, and watch trend videos; Likee, a short-form video social platform that focuses on enabling users to create short-form video; Hago, a casual game-oriented social platform; and imo, a chat and instant messaging application with functions, including video calls, text messages, and photo and video sharing. It operates in the People’s Republic of China, the United States, the Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia and others. The company was formerly known as YY Inc. and changed its name to JOYY Inc. in December 2019. JOYY Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Singapore.