Reviewing Creative Realities (NASDAQ:CREX) and Dolphin Entertainment (NASDAQ:DLPN)

Dolphin Entertainment (NASDAQ:DLPN) and Creative Realities (NASDAQ:CREX) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Dolphin Entertainment has a beta of 1.83, meaning that its stock price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Creative Realities has a beta of 1.52, meaning that its stock price is 52% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Dolphin Entertainment and Creative Realities, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dolphin Entertainment	1	1	0	0	1.50
Creative Realities	1	1	2	0	2.25

Creative Realities has a consensus price target of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 258.91%. Given Creative Realities’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Creative Realities is more favorable than Dolphin Entertainment.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

8.9% of Dolphin Entertainment shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.3% of Creative Realities shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.2% of Dolphin Entertainment shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 26.8% of Creative Realities shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Dolphin Entertainment and Creative Realities’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dolphin Entertainment	-6.31%	-21.68%	-3.03%
Creative Realities	-29.29%	-88.21%	-13.51%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Dolphin Entertainment and Creative Realities”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dolphin Entertainment	$57.69 million	0.23	-$3.09 million	($0.29)	-3.50
Creative Realities	$57.23 million	0.53	-$8.28 million	($2.11)	-1.06

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

About Dolphin Entertainment

Dolphin Entertainment, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an independent entertainment marketing and production company in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Entertainment Publicity, and Marketing and Content Production. The Entertainment Publicity and Marketing segment provides diversified marketing services, including public relations, entertainment and hospitality content marketing, strategic communications, strategic marketing consulting, social media and influencer marketing, digital marketing, creative branding, talent publicity, and entertainment marketing services, as well as produces promotional video content. The Content Production segment produces and distributes feature films and digital content. In addition, it offers strategic marketing and publicity services to individuals and corporates in the entertainment, hospitality, and music industries; and marketing direction, public relations counsel, and media strategy for video game publishers, as well as eSports leagues and other entities in the gaming industry. The company was formerly known as Dolphin Digital Media, Inc. and changed its name to Dolphin Entertainment, Inc. in July 2017. The company was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida.

About Creative Realities

Creative Realities, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides digital marketing technology and solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers digital signage and media solutions to enhance communications in a wide-ranging variety of out-of-home environments. The company’s solutions include digital merchandising systems and omni-channel customer engagement systems; interactive digital shopping assistants; advisors and kiosks; and other interactive marketing technologies, such as mobile, social media, point-of-sale transactions, beaconing, and web-based media that enables its customers to engage with their consumers. It also provides hardware system design/engineering, hardware installation, content development, content scheduling, post-deployment network and field support, and media sales, as well as media management and distribution software platforms and networks; device and product management; and customized software service layers, systems, experiences, workflows, and integrated solutions. The company sells its solutions to the automotive, retail, digital out of home comprising advertising networks and retail media networks, foodservice/quick-serve restaurants, financial services, gaming, and sports and entertainment venues. Creative Realities, Inc. is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.