GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) & VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) Critical Review

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) and GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

VNET Group has a beta of 0.27, indicating that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GoDaddy has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares VNET Group and GoDaddy”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
VNET Group	$1.42 billion	1.29	-$36.01 million	($1.42)	-4.76
GoDaddy	$4.95 billion	2.46	$875.00 million	$6.74	14.25

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

Profitability

This table compares VNET Group and GoDaddy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VNET Group	-22.29%	-36.25%	-4.43%
GoDaddy	17.83%	660.96%	11.32%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

72.8% of VNET Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.3% of GoDaddy shares are held by institutional investors. 12.1% of VNET Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of GoDaddy shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for VNET Group and GoDaddy, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
VNET Group	1	1	4	0	2.50
GoDaddy	1	8	9	0	2.44

VNET Group currently has a consensus price target of $16.90, suggesting a potential upside of 149.78%. GoDaddy has a consensus price target of $110.07, suggesting a potential upside of 14.57%. Given VNET Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe VNET Group is more favorable than GoDaddy.

Summary

GoDaddy beats VNET Group on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About VNET Group

VNET Group, Inc., an investment holding company, provides hosting and related services in China. It offers managed hosting services consisting of managed retail services, such as colocation services that dedicate data center space to house customers' servers and networking equipment, as well as allow customers to lease partial or entire cabinets for their servers; interconnectivity services that allow customers to connect their servers; value-added services, including hybrid IT, bare metal, firewall, server load balancing, data backup and recovery, data center management, server management, and backup server services; cloud services that allow customers to run applications over the internet using IT infrastructure; and VPN Services that extend customers' private networks by setting up connections through the public internet. The company also provides server administration services, such as operating system support and assistance with updates, server monitoring, server backup and restoration, server security evaluation, firewall services, and disaster recovery services. It serves information technology and cloud services, communications and social networking, gaming and entertainment, e-commerce, automobile, financial services, and blue-chip and small-to-mid-sized enterprises; government agencies; individuals; and telecommunication carriers. The company was formerly known as 21Vianet Group, Inc. and changed its name to VNET Group, Inc. in October 2021. VNET Group, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

About GoDaddy

GoDaddy Inc. engages in the design and development of cloud-based products in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Applications and Commerce, and Core Platform. The Applications and Commerce segment provides applications products, including Websites + Marketing, a mobile-optimized online tool that enables customers to build websites and e-commerce enabled online stores; and Managed WordPress, a streamlined and optimized website building that allows customers to easily build and manage a faster WordPress site; Managed WooCommerce Stores to sell anything and anywhere online; and marketing tools and services, such as GoDaddy Studio mobile application, search engine optimization, Meta and Google My Business, and email and social media marketing designed to help businesses acquire and engage customers and create content. The segment also offers connected commerce comprising Smart Terminal, a dual screen all-in-one Point-of-Sale system that allows customers to manage in-store inventory and product catalogs and take payments; GoDaddy Payments, a payment facilitator that enables customers to accept all major forms of payments; and email service plans with a multi-feature web interface, and Microsoft Office 365 accounts that connects to customers’ domains. The Core Platform segment offers domain products, including primary registrations, domain aftermarket platform, and domain name add-ons, as well as GoDaddy Registry, a provider of domain name registry services; and hosting and security services comprising shared website hosting, virtual private servers, and managed wordpress hosting services, as well as security products with a comprehensive suite of tools designed to help secure customers’ online presence. The company serves small businesses, individuals, organizations, developers, designers, and domain investors. GoDaddy Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.