Analyzing MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) & LexinFintech (NASDAQ:LX)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for LexinFintech and MARA, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LexinFintech	0	0	2	0	3.00
MARA	1	4	5	0	2.40

LexinFintech presently has a consensus price target of $13.60, indicating a potential upside of 86.05%. MARA has a consensus price target of $20.83, indicating a potential upside of 32.02%. Given LexinFintech’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe LexinFintech is more favorable than MARA.

Risk & Volatility

LexinFintech has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MARA has a beta of 6.61, suggesting that its share price is 561% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

44.5% of MARA shares are held by institutional investors. 27.8% of LexinFintech shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of MARA shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares LexinFintech and MARA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LexinFintech	5.34%	7.47%	3.26%
MARA	27.48%	-8.40%	-6.92%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares LexinFintech and MARA”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LexinFintech	$14.07 billion	0.09	$150.14 million	$1.06	6.90
MARA	$705.06 million	7.88	$261.17 million	($1.45)	-10.88

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

About LexinFintech

LexinFintech Holdings Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides online consumer finance services in the People's Republic of China. The company operates Fenqile.com, an online consumption and consumer finance platform that offers installment purchase and personal installment loans, as well as online direct sales with installment payment terms; and Le Hua Card, a scenario-based lending. It also provides technology-driven platform services for financial institution customers and partners to increase revenues, manage financial risks, enhance operating efficiency and service quality, enhance collections, and reduce overall costs; Maiya application, a location-based services shopping experience with buy-now and pay-later options; and Juzi Licai, an online investment platform. In addition, the company offers technical support and consulting, software development, financing guarantee, and financial technology services. The company was formerly known as Staging Finance Holding Ltd. and changed its name to LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. in March 2017. LexinFintech Holdings Ltd. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, the People's Republic of China.

About MARA

MARA Holdings, Inc. operates as a digital asset technology company that mines digital assets with a focus on the bitcoin ecosystem in United States. The company was formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to MARA Holdings, Inc. in August 2024. MARA Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.