Contrasting VIQ Solutions (OTCMKTS:VQSLF) and SEMrush (NYSE:SEMR)

SEMrush (NYSE:SEMR) and VIQ Solutions (OTCMKTS:VQSLF) are both small-cap services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, profitability and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

SEMrush has a beta of 1.6, meaning that its stock price is 60% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VIQ Solutions has a beta of -1.16, meaning that its stock price is 216% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for SEMrush and VIQ Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SEMrush	1	1	0	0	1.50
VIQ Solutions	0	0	0	0	0.00

Given VIQ Solutions’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe VIQ Solutions is more favorable than SEMrush.

Profitability

This table compares SEMrush and VIQ Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SEMrush	-0.31%	-0.47%	-0.32%
VIQ Solutions	-20.94%	-32.42%	-11.67%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

32.9% of SEMrush shares are owned by institutional investors. 55.6% of SEMrush shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares SEMrush and VIQ Solutions”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SEMrush	$376.82 million	2.92	$8.24 million	N/A	N/A
VIQ Solutions	$31.75 million	0.00	-$11.15 million	($0.50)	N/A

SEMrush has higher revenue and earnings than VIQ Solutions.

Summary

SEMrush beats VIQ Solutions on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SEMrush

Semrush Holdings, Inc. develops an online visibility management software-as-a-service platform worldwide. The company enables companies to identify and reach the right audience for their content through the right channels. Its platform enables the company’s customers to understand trends and act upon insights to enhance the online visibility, and drive traffic to their websites and social media pages, as well as online listings, distribute targeted content to their customers, and measure the digital marketing campaigns. The company was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

About VIQ Solutions

VIQ Solutions Inc. operates as a technology and service platform provider for digital evidence capture, retrieval, and content management in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Technology and Related Revenue, and Technology Services. The Technology segment develops, distributes, and licenses computer-based digital solutions based on its technology. The Technology Services segment provides recording and transcription services. The company offers CapturePro that securely speeds the capture, creation, and management of large volumes of information, as well as preserves and secures the spoken word and video image, and delivers data; MobileMic Pro for capturing and managing incident reports, recorded statements, case notes, and other vital information; NetScribe, a speech-to-text engine to consolidate, accelerate, and optimize transcription workflows; and aiAssist, a multi-tenant workflow and analysis platform to manage, convert, and analyze large volumes of audio and visual content. It also provides legal, criminal justice, insurance, government, corporate finance, and media transcription services. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is based in Mississauga, Canada.