Critical Analysis: MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) & Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT)

MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) and Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for MARA and Green Dot, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MARA	1	3	4	0	2.38
Green Dot	1	2	1	0	2.00

MARA currently has a consensus target price of $21.57, indicating a potential upside of 3.76%. Green Dot has a consensus target price of $10.75, indicating a potential downside of 1.10%. Given MARA’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MARA is more favorable than Green Dot.

Volatility and Risk

MARA has a beta of 5.52, indicating that its share price is 452% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Green Dot has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares MARA and Green Dot’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MARA	27.48%	-8.98%	-7.50%
Green Dot	-3.39%	3.84%	0.65%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

44.5% of MARA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of Green Dot shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.0% of MARA shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Green Dot shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares MARA and Green Dot”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MARA	$564.95 million	10.84	$261.17 million	$0.79	26.32
Green Dot	$1.50 billion	0.39	$6.72 million	($1.05)	-10.35

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

Summary

MARA beats Green Dot on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MARA

MARA Holdings, Inc. operates as a digital asset technology company that mines digital assets with a focus on the bitcoin ecosystem in United States. The company was formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to MARA Holdings, Inc. in August 2024. MARA Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

About Green Dot

Green Dot Corporation, a financial technology and registered bank holding company, provides various financial services to consumers and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer Services, Business to Business Services, and Money Movement Services. The company provides deposit account programs, including consumer and small business checking account products, network-branded reloadable prepaid debit cards and gift cards, and secured credit programs. It offers money processing services, such as cash transfer services that enable consumers to deposit or pick up cash and pay bills with cash at the point-of-sale at any participating retailer; and simply paid disbursement services, which enable wages and authorized funds disbursement to its deposit account programs and accounts issued by any third-party bank or program manager. In addition, the company offers tax processing services comprising tax refund transfers, which provide the processing technology to facilitate receipt of a taxpayers' refund proceeds; small business lending to independent tax preparation providers that seek small advances; and fast cash advance, a loan that enables tax refund recipients. Green Dot Corporation was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.