Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) & Triller Group (NYSE:ILLR) Critical Analysis

Virtus Investment Partners (NASDAQ:VRTS) and Triller Group (NYSE:ILLR) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, risk and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

80.5% of Virtus Investment Partners shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Triller Group shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of Virtus Investment Partners shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.8% of Triller Group 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

Virtus Investment Partners has a beta of 1.47, indicating that its share price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Triller Group has a beta of -1.38, indicating that its share price is 238% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Virtus Investment Partners and Triller Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Virtus Investment Partners	$906.95 million	1.41	$121.75 million	$16.90	10.79
Triller Group	$54.19 million	3.70	-$49.21 million	($1.22)	-1.01

Virtus Investment Partners has higher revenue and earnings than Triller Group. Triller Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Virtus Investment Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Virtus Investment Partners and Triller Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Virtus Investment Partners	13.42%	21.56%	5.27%
Triller Group	-139.01%	-805.50%	-54.21%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Virtus Investment Partners and Triller Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Virtus Investment Partners	2	1	1	0	1.75
Triller Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Virtus Investment Partners currently has a consensus target price of $225.75, suggesting a potential upside of 23.78%. Given Virtus Investment Partners’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Virtus Investment Partners is more favorable than Triller Group.

Summary

Virtus Investment Partners beats Triller Group on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Virtus Investment Partners

Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to individual and institutional clients. It launches separate client focused equity and fixed income portfolios. The firm launches equity, fixed income, and balanced mutual funds for its clients. It invests in the public equity, fixed income, and real estate markets. The firm also invests in exchange traded funds. It employs a multi manager approach for its products. The firm employs quantitative analysis to make its investments. It benchmarks the performance of its portfolios against the S&P 500 Index. The firm conducts in-house research to make its investments. Virtus Investment Partners, Inc. was founded in 1988 and is based in Hartford, Connecticut.

About Triller Group

Triller Group, Inc. engages in the provision of an artificial intelligence-powered, social media and live-streaming event platform for creators. It uses proprietary AI technology to push and track content virtually to affiliated and non-affiliated sites and networks. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.