Financial Comparison: Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) vs. Weibo (NASDAQ:WB)

Weibo (NASDAQ:WB) and Autohome (NYSE:ATHM) are both communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Weibo and Autohome’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Weibo	17.78%	8.94%	4.98%
Autohome	17.91%	5.01%	4.01%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Weibo and Autohome, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Weibo	2	3	1	0	1.83
Autohome	2	4	0	0	1.67

Weibo presently has a consensus price target of $8.80, suggesting a potential upside of 23.77%. Autohome has a consensus price target of $17.77, suggesting a potential downside of 19.39%. Given Weibo’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Weibo is more favorable than Autohome.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

68.8% of Weibo shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.1% of Autohome shares are held by institutional investors. 41.3% of Weibo shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.7% of Autohome shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Weibo has a beta of 0.18, suggesting that its stock price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Autohome has a beta of 0.23, suggesting that its stock price is 77% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Weibo and Autohome”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Weibo	$1.79 billion	0.97	$449.02 million	$1.21	5.88
Autohome	$5.49 billion	0.46	$225.19 million	$1.31	16.82

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

Dividends

Weibo pays an annual dividend of $0.59 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Autohome pays an annual dividend of $2.41 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.9%. Weibo pays out 48.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Autohome pays out 184.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Summary

Weibo beats Autohome on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Weibo

Weibo Corporation, through its subsidiaries, operates as a social media platform for people to create, discover, and distribute content in the People’s Republic of China. It operates in two segments, Advertising and Marketing Services; and Value-Added Services. The company offers discovery products to help users discover content on its platform; self-expression products that enable its users to express themselves on its platform; and social products to promote social interaction between users on its platform. It also provides advertising and marketing solutions, such as social display advertisements; and promoted marketing offerings, such as Fans Headline and Weibo Express promoted feeds, as well as promoted trends and search products that appear alongside user’s trends discovery and search behaviors. In addition, the company offers products, such as trends, search, video/live streaming, and editing tools; content customization, copyright contents pooling, and user interaction development; and search list recommendation, trends list recommendation, and Weibo app opening advertisements. Further, it provides back-end management, traffic support, and product services for better displaying and promotion of its account and content; open application platform for other app developers that allows users to log into third-party applications with their Weibo account for sharing third-party content on its platform; and Weibo Wallet, a product that enables platform partners to conduct interest generation activities on Weibo, such as handing out red envelops and coupons. The company was formerly known as T.CN Corporation and changed its name to Weibo Corporation in 2012. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.

About Autohome

Autohome Inc. operates as an online destination for automobile consumers in the People’s Republic of China. The company delivers interactive content and tools to automobile consumers through its three websites, autohome.com.cn, che168.com, and ttpai.cn on PCs, mobile devices, mobile applications, and mini apps. It provides media services, including automaker advertising services and regional marketing campaigns; and leads generation services comprising dealer subscription services, advertising services for individual dealers, and used automobile listing and other platform-based services. The company offers Autohome Mall, an online transaction platform; and online bidding platform for used automobiles, as well as collects commissions for facilitating transactions of auto-financing and insurance products on its platform. The company was formerly known as Sequel Limited and changed its name to Autohome Inc. in October 2011. Autohome Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.