Head-To-Head Comparison: Sprott (NYSE:SII) and MarketWise (NASDAQ:MKTW)

MarketWise (NASDAQ:MKTW) and Sprott (NYSE:SII) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

MarketWise has a beta of 0.25, indicating that its stock price is 75% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sprott has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares MarketWise and Sprott”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MarketWise	$328.12 million	0.90	$5.62 million	$0.88	21.18
Sprott	$285.08 million	11.68	$67.35 million	$4.08	31.74

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

Dividends

MarketWise pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.4%. Sprott pays an annual dividend of $1.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. MarketWise pays out 113.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Sprott pays out 39.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MarketWise has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Sprott has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MarketWise	0	1	1	0	2.50
Sprott	0	1	2	0	2.67

Sprott has a consensus target price of $230.00, indicating a potential upside of 77.63%. Given Sprott’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Sprott is more favorable than MarketWise.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

23.0% of MarketWise shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.3% of Sprott shares are owned by institutional investors. 29.9% of MarketWise shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of Sprott shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares MarketWise and Sprott’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MarketWise	0.70%	-0.96%	1.10%
Sprott	26.36%	28.40%	20.95%

Summary

Sprott beats MarketWise on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MarketWise

MarketWise, Inc. operates a content and technology multi-brand platform for self-directed investors in the United States and Internationally. Its platform includes subscription businesses that provides financial research, software, education, and tools to navigate the financial markets. The company offers various investment strategies, such as value investing, income, growth, commodities, cryptocurrencies, venture, crowdfunded investing, biotechnology, mutual funds, options, and trading; investment research product portfolio through a range of media, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile; and financial newsletters. It provides a suite of stock research tools and portfolio management services under the Chaikin Analytics brand; portfolio management software tools under the TradeSmith brand name; and database of accounting-based financial summaries under the Altimetry brand. In addition, the company develops screeners, monitors, portfolio management tools, and proprietary indicators that produce a composite score to rank publicly traded companies. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

About Sprott

Sprott Inc. is a publicly owned asset management holding company. Through its subsidiaries, the firm provides asset management, portfolio management, wealth management, fund management, and administrative and consulting services to its clients. It offers mutual funds, hedge funds, and offshore funds, along with managed accounts. Further, the firm also provides broker-dealer activities. Sprott Inc. was formed on February 13, 2008 and is based in Toronto, Canada.