Reviewing Cable One (NYSE:CABO) & Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO)

Cable One (NYSE:CABO) and Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, earnings, valuation, risk, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.9% of Cable One shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.3% of Criteo shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of Cable One shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.5% of Criteo shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Cable One and Criteo, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cable One	3	3	0	0	1.50
Criteo	3	3	6	0	2.25

Cable One presently has a consensus price target of $85.40, indicating a potential upside of 380.45%. Criteo has a consensus price target of $22.65, indicating a potential upside of 33.75%. Given Cable One’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Cable One is more favorable than Criteo.

Profitability

This table compares Cable One and Criteo’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cable One	-72.83%	-3.97%	-0.86%
Criteo	5.60%	14.33%	8.05%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Cable One and Criteo”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cable One	$1.50 billion	0.07	-$356.46 million	($185.06)	-0.10
Criteo	$1.94 billion	0.43	$144.60 million	$1.97	8.60

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

Volatility and Risk

Cable One has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Criteo has a beta of 0.27, suggesting that its stock price is 73% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Criteo beats Cable One on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cable One

Cable One, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides data, video, and voice services in the United States. The company offers residential data services, a service to enhance Wi-Fi signal throughout the home. It also provides various residential video services from basic video service to digital services with access to hundreds of channels; and provides a cloud-based DVR feature that does not require the use of a set-top boxes. In addition, the company offers Sparklight TV, an IPTV video service that allows customers to stream its video channels from the cloud through an app on supported devices, such as the Amazon Firestick, Apple TV, and Android-based smart televisions. Further, it provides data, voice, and video products to business customers, including small to mid-markets, enterprises, and wholesale and carrier customers. The company serves residential and business customers, comprising data, video, and voice services. Cable One, Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

About Criteo

Criteo S.A., a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties. It also offers Criteo AI Engine solutions, including lookalike finder, recommendation, and predictive bidding algorithms; recommendation algorithms, dynamic creative optimization+, sponsored product placement algorithms, and other product placement algorithms. The company's technology comprises data synchronization, storage, and analysis of distributed computing infrastructure in various geographies, as well as fast data collection and retrieval using multi-layered caching infrastructure; and experimentation platform, an offline/online testing platform to enhance the capabilities and effectiveness of prediction models. In addition, it provides Criteo Marketing Solutions that allow commerce companies to address various marketing goals by engaging their consumers with personalized ads across the web, mobile, and offline store environments; and Criteo Retail Media solutions, which allows retailers to generate advertising revenues from consumer brands, and/or to drive sales for themselves, by monetizing their data and audiences through personalized ads, either on their own digital property or on the open Internet. Further, the company offers real-time advertising technology and trading infrastructure, delivering advanced media buying, selling, and packaging capabilities for media owners, agencies, performance advertisers, and third-party AdTech platforms. It serves companies in digital retail, travel, and classifieds sectors. Criteo S.A. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Paris, France.