Zhihu (NYSE:ZH) & Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) Head-To-Head Survey

Zhihu (NYSE:ZH) and Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Zhihu and Pinterest, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Zhihu	1	0	0	0	1.00
Pinterest	0	19	18	0	2.49

Pinterest has a consensus price target of $27.90, indicating a potential upside of 31.42%. Given Pinterest’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Pinterest is more favorable than Zhihu.

Profitability

This table compares Zhihu and Pinterest’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Zhihu	-11.33%	-7.71%	-5.75%
Pinterest	5.46%	7.49%	5.62%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

28.9% of Zhihu shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.8% of Pinterest shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.6% of Zhihu shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.1% of Pinterest shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Zhihu and Pinterest”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Zhihu	$393.10 million	0.57	-$27.58 million	($0.55)	-4.70
Pinterest	$4.22 billion	2.82	$416.86 million	$0.34	62.44

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

Volatility and Risk

Zhihu has a beta of 0.26, indicating that its share price is 74% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Pinterest has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Pinterest beats Zhihu on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Zhihu

Zhihu Inc. operates an online content community in the People’s Republic of China. Its community allows people to seek inspiration, find solutions, make decisions, and have fun. The company offers technology, business support, and consulting services; information transmission, software, and information technology services. It also offers information and marketing services; vocational training; and internet services, as well as holds audio-visual permit. Zhihu Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.

About Pinterest

Pinterest, Inc. operates as a visual search and discovery platform in the United States and internationally. Its platform allows people to find ideas, such as recipes, home and style inspiration, and others; and to search, save, and shop the ideas. The company was formerly known as Cold Brew Labs Inc. and changed its name to Pinterest, Inc. in April 2012. Pinterest, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.