Materialise (NASDAQ:MTLS) versus Cheetah Mobile (NYSE:CMCM) Financial Contrast

Cheetah Mobile (NYSE:CMCM) and Materialise (NASDAQ:MTLS) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Cheetah Mobile has a beta of 1.84, suggesting that its share price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Materialise has a beta of 1.33, suggesting that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cheetah Mobile and Materialise”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cheetah Mobile	$1.12 billion	0.07	-$36.85 million	($1.51)	-1.69
Materialise	$272.77 million	1.87	$8.73 million	$0.27	32.06

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Cheetah Mobile and Materialise, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cheetah Mobile	1	0	0	0	1.00
Materialise	0	2	2	0	2.50

Materialise has a consensus price target of $10.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.54%. Given Materialise’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Materialise is more favorable than Cheetah Mobile.

Profitability

This table compares Cheetah Mobile and Materialise’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cheetah Mobile	-28.11%	-8.54%	-3.22%
Materialise	4.85%	5.20%	3.17%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.4% of Cheetah Mobile shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.3% of Materialise shares are owned by institutional investors. 17.1% of Cheetah Mobile shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Materialise shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Materialise beats Cheetah Mobile on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cheetah Mobile

Cheetah Mobile Inc. along with its subsidiaries, engages in provision of internet services, artificial intelligence, and other services in the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan, and internationally. The company's internet products include Duba Anti-virus, an internet security application to protect users against known and unknown security threats and malicious applications; and Clean Master, a junk file cleaning, memory boosting, and privacy protection tool for mobile devices. It also offers value-added products, such as PC and mobile products, as well as wallpaper, office optimization software, and others; E-Coupon vending robot, a delivery and reception robot, which includes marketing campaigns and services; and multi-cloud management platform and overseas advertising agency service. In addition, the company provides mobile advertising services; duba.com personal start page that aggregates online resources and provides users access to their online destinations, such as online shopping, video, online game, travel, and local information; artificial intelligence and other services; and premium membership services. It serves mobile advertising networks and partners, e-commerce companies, mobile application developers, and mobile game developers, as well as individual customers. The company was formerly known as Kingsoft Internet Software Holdings Limited and changed its name to Cheetah Mobile Inc. in March 2014. Cheetah Mobile Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Beijing, the People's Republic of China.

About Materialise

Materialise NV provides additive manufacturing and medical software, and 3D printing services in the Americas, Europe and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Materialise Software, Materialise Medical, and Materialise Manufacturing. The Materialise Software segment offers software through programs and platforms that enable and enhance the functionality of 3D printers and of 3D printing operations. Its software interfaces between various types of 3D printers; and various software applications and capturing technologies, including computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing packages and 3D scanners. This segment serves 3D printing machine manufacturers; production companies and contract manufacturers in automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, and hearing aid industries; and 3D printing service bureaus through its sales force, Website, and third party distributors. The Materialise Medical segment provides medical software that allows medical-image based analysis, planning, and engineering, as well as patient-specific design and printing of surgical devices and implants. It serves medical device companies, hospitals, universities, research institutes, and industrial companies through its direct sales force, Website, and picture archiving and communication system. The Materialise Manufacturing segment provides 3D printing services, design and engineering services, and rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing of production parts to industrial and commercial customers. The company has collaboration agreements with Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.; Encore Medical, L.P.; DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson; Limacorporate Spa; Mathys AG; Corin Ltd; Smith & Nephew Inc.; Corin Ltd; Medtronic Inc.; and Abbott Laboratories Inc. Materialise NV was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium.