Head to Head Comparison: Snap (NYSE:SNAP) and JOYY (NASDAQ:JOYY)

Snap (NYSE:SNAP) and JOYY (NASDAQ:JOYY) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk and analyst recommendations.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Snap and JOYY”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Snap	$5.93 billion	1.81	-$460.49 million	($0.18)	-35.25
JOYY	$2.27 billion	1.83	$2.10 billion	$4.19	20.18

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Snap and JOYY, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Snap	2	23	10	1	2.28
JOYY	0	1	6	0	2.86

Snap currently has a consensus price target of $7.68, indicating a potential upside of 21.08%. JOYY has a consensus price target of $83.40, indicating a potential downside of 1.37%. Given Snap’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Snap is more favorable than JOYY.

Profitability

This table compares Snap and JOYY’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Snap	-4.90%	-14.61%	-4.12%
JOYY	9.64%	3.28%	2.85%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

47.5% of Snap shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.8% of JOYY shares are held by institutional investors. 22.7% of Snap shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 43.0% of JOYY shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Snap has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, JOYY has a beta of 0.38, suggesting that its stock price is 62% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

JOYY beats Snap on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Snap

Snap Inc. operates as a technology company in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Snapchat, a visual messaging application with various tabs, such as camera, visual messaging, snap map, stories, and spotlight that enable people to communicate visually through short videos and images. It also provides Spectacles, an eyewear product that connects with Snapchat and captures photos and video from a human perspective; and advertising products, including AR ads and Snap ads comprises a single image or video ads, collection ads, dynamic ads, story ads, and commercials. The company was formerly known as Snapchat, Inc. and changed its name to Snap Inc. in September 2016. Snap Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

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.