Contrasting Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) & Hour Loop (NASDAQ:HOUR)

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) and Hour Loop (NASDAQ:HOUR) are both consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Alibaba Group and Hour Loop, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alibaba Group	0	6	13	2	2.81
Hour Loop	0	1	0	0	2.00

Alibaba Group currently has a consensus target price of $182.89, suggesting a potential upside of 64.81%. Given Alibaba Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Alibaba Group is more favorable than Hour Loop.

Volatility and Risk

Alibaba Group has a beta of 0.47, meaning that its share price is 53% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hour Loop has a beta of 1.38, meaning that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Alibaba Group and Hour Loop’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alibaba Group	7.00%	4.79%	2.80%
Hour Loop	1.14%	22.31%	6.60%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Alibaba Group and Hour Loop”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alibaba Group	$148.40 billion	1.86	$15.02 billion	$4.13	26.87
Hour Loop	$142.44 million	0.43	$1.71 million	$0.04	43.25

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

13.5% of Alibaba Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.3% of Hour Loop shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.5% of Alibaba Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 95.0% of Hour Loop shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Alibaba Group beats Hour Loop on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help merchants, brands, retailers, and other businesses to engage with their users and customers in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company operates through seven segments: China Commerce, International Commerce, Local Consumer Services, Cainiao, Cloud, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives and Others. It operates Taobao, a digital retail platform; Tmall, a third-party online and mobile commerce platform; Alimama, a monetization platform; 1688.com and Alibaba.com, which are online wholesale marketplaces; AliExpress, a retail marketplace; Lazada, Trendyol, and Daraz that are e-commerce platforms; Freshippo, a retail platform for groceries and fresh goods; and Tmall Global, an import e-commerce platform. The company also operates Cainiao Network logistic services platform; Ele.me, an on-demand delivery and local services platform; Koubei, a restaurant and local services guide platform; and Fliggy, an online travel platform. In addition, it offers pay-for-performance, in-feed, and display marketing services; and Taobao Ad Network and Exchange, a real-time online bidding marketing exchange. Further, the company provides elastic computing, storage, network, security, database, big data, and IoT services; and hardware, software license, software installation, and application development and maintenance services. Additionally, it operates Youku, an online video platform; Quark, a platform for information search, storage, and consumption; Alibaba Pictures and other content platforms that provide online videos, films, live events, news feeds, literature, music, and others; Amap, a mobile digital map, navigation, and real-time traffic information app; DingTalk, a business efficiency mobile app; and Tmall Genie smart speaker. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China.

About Hour Loop

Hour Loop, Inc., an online retailer, engages in e-commerce retailing in the United States. The company sells products in various categories, including home/garden décor, toys, kitchenware, apparels, and electronics products. It sells its products through hourloop.com, as well as third-party marketplaces. Hour Loop, Inc. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.