Head to Head Contrast: NCR Atleos (NYSE:NATL) and StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE)

StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) and NCR Atleos (NYSE:NATL) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for StoneCo and NCR Atleos, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
StoneCo	0	6	4	0	2.40
NCR Atleos	0	4	1	0	2.20

StoneCo presently has a consensus target price of $14.30, suggesting a potential upside of 24.24%. NCR Atleos has a consensus target price of $50.27, suggesting a potential upside of 10.55%. Given StoneCo’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe StoneCo is more favorable than NCR Atleos.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares StoneCo and NCR Atleos”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
StoneCo	$2.53 billion	1.13	$425.73 million	$2.48	4.64
NCR Atleos	$4.35 billion	0.77	$162.00 million	$2.58	17.62

StoneCo has higher earnings, but lower revenue than NCR Atleos. StoneCo is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than NCR Atleos, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares StoneCo and NCR Atleos’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
StoneCo	22.92%	22.19%	4.10%
NCR Atleos	4.44%	83.41%	5.87%

Risk and Volatility

StoneCo has a beta of 1.68, meaning that its share price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NCR Atleos has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

73.2% of StoneCo shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.7% of NCR Atleos shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.3% of StoneCo shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of NCR Atleos shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

StoneCo beats NCR Atleos on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About StoneCo

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil. It distributes its solutions, principally through proprietary Stone Hubs, which offer hyper-local sales and services; and sells solutions to brick-and-mortar and digital merchants through sales team. The company served small-and-medium-sized businesses; and marketplaces, e-commerce platforms, and integrated software vendors. StoneCo Ltd. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in George Town, the Cayman Islands.

About NCR Atleos

NCR Atleos Corporation operates as a financial technology company in the United States, rest of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Self-Service Banking, Network, and Telecommunications & Technology (T&T). The Self-Service Banking segment offers solutions, including a line of automated teller machine (ATM) and interactive teller machine (ITM) hardware and software, as well as related installation, maintenance, and managed and professional services; and solutions to manage and run the ATM channel end-to-end for financial institutions comprising back office, cash management, software management and ATM deployment, and others. The Network segment provides a network of ATMs and multi-functioning financial services kiosks for financial institutions, fintechs, neobanks, and retailers; Allpoint network for credit unions, banks, digital banks, fintechs, stored-value debit card issuers, and other consumer financial services providers; ReadyCode to convert a digital value to cash or cash to a digital value; ATM branding solutions to financial institutions; ATM management and services to retailers and other businesses; and engages in the buying and selling of Bitcoins. The T&T segment offers managed network and infrastructure services to enterprise clients across various industries through communications service providers and technology manufacturers; and professional, field, and remote services for modern network technologies, including software-defined wide area networking, network functions virtualization, wireless local area networks, optical networking, and edge networks. NCR Atleos Corporation is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.