Ooma (NYSE:OOMA) & UTStarcom (NASDAQ:UTSI) Critical Survey

Ooma (NYSE:OOMA) and UTStarcom (NASDAQ:UTSI) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and dividends.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Ooma and UTStarcom”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ooma	$256.85 million	1.35	-$6.90 million	($0.07)	-179.44
UTStarcom	$10.88 million	2.12	-$4.37 million	N/A	N/A

UTStarcom has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Ooma.

Profitability

This table compares Ooma and UTStarcom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ooma	-0.58%	6.57%	3.77%
UTStarcom	N/A	N/A	N/A

Risk and Volatility

Ooma has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, UTStarcom has a beta of 0.13, indicating that its stock price is 87% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.4% of Ooma shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.8% of UTStarcom shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.9% of Ooma shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.7% of UTStarcom shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Ooma and UTStarcom, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ooma	0	1	4	0	2.80
UTStarcom	0	0	0	0	0.00

Ooma presently has a consensus price target of $17.63, indicating a potential upside of 40.32%. Given Ooma’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Ooma is more favorable than UTStarcom.

Summary

Ooma beats UTStarcom on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ooma

Ooma, Inc. provides communications services and related technologies for businesses and consumers in the United States and Canada. The company's products and services include Ooma Office, a cloud-based multi-user communications system for small and medium-sized businesses; Ooma Connect, which delivers fixed wireless internet connectivity; and Ooma Enterprise, a unified-communications-as-a-service (UCaaS) solution. It also provides Ooma AirDial, a plain old telephone service; PureVoice HD, a residential phone services; Ooma basic that provides unlimited personal calling within the United States; and Ooma Premier, a suite of advanced calling features on a monthly or annual subscription basis. In addition, the company offers Ooma Telo, a home communications solution designed to serve as the primary phone line in the home; Ooma Telo Air, a wireless Ooma Telo with built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; and Ooma Telo LTE, which combines the Ooma Telo base station with the Ooma LTE Adapter and battery back-up. Further, it provides Ooma Mobile HD app that allows users to make and receive phone calls and access Ooma features and settings; 2600Hz provides business communication applications; Talkatone mobile app; and OnSIP, an UCaaS solutions. The company offers its products through direct sales, distributors, retailers, and resellers, as well as online and sale representatives. Ooma, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

About UTStarcom

UTStarcom Holdings Corp. operates as a telecom infrastructure provider to develop technology for bandwidth from cloud-based services, mobile, streaming, and other applications in China, India, Japan, and internationally. Its products include converged packet transport, disaggregated router platform, packet transport network, packet aggregation network, multi-services access network, fiber to the X, carrier Wi-Fi solutions, and software defined network controller products. The company also offers packet optical and network synchronization products. It serves telecommunications operators and equipment distributors. The company was founded in 1991 and is based in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China.