Financial Comparison: IDT (NYSE:IDT) and Data Storage (NASDAQ:DTST)

IDT (NYSE:IDT) and Data Storage (NASDAQ:DTST) are both communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, earnings, risk and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

59.3% of IDT shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 11.6% of Data Storage shares are held by institutional investors. 25.4% of IDT shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.2% of Data Storage shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares IDT and Data Storage’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IDT	6.67%	24.22%	12.69%
Data Storage	1,247.09%	-5.48%	-4.86%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares IDT and Data Storage”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IDT	$1.30 billion	1.57	$86.63 million	$3.47	23.60
Data Storage	$1.38 million	5.26	$19.20 million	($0.76)	-4.08

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for IDT and Data Storage, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IDT	0	1	2	0	2.67
Data Storage	1	0	0	0	1.00

IDT currently has a consensus price target of $85.00, indicating a potential upside of 3.78%. Given IDT’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe IDT is more favorable than Data Storage.

Risk & Volatility

IDT has a beta of 0.6, meaning that its share price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Data Storage has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

IDT beats Data Storage on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About IDT

IDT Corporation provides communications and payment services in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through Fintech, National Retail Solutions, net2phone, and Traditional Communications segments. The company operates point of sale, a terminal-based platform which provides independent retailers store management software, electronic payment processing, and other ancillary merchant services; and provides marketers with digital out-of-home advertising and transaction data. It also offers BOSS Money for international money remittance, and related value and payment transfer services; and Leaf, a digital wallet services which operates money transfer businesses, as well as net2phone, a unified cloud communication services, which includes voice, texting, and chat services to enable smarter business conversations. In addition, the company provides IDT Digital Payments enables businesses, entrepreneurs, and developers to offer prepaid digital offerings including mobile airtime top-up, mobile data bundles, digital gift cards, and prepaid utility payments through its Zendit platform; and BOSS Revolution Calling, which provides international long-distance voice services primarily to immigrant communities in the United States and Canada. Further, it offers IDT Global, a wholesale provider of international voice and SMS termination, and outsourced traffic management solutions to telecoms; and IDT Express, a unique self-serve portal that offers SMBs the power to purchase DIDs, manage IPs, select termination quality, make payments, and other services. The company also provides Awards2Go, a B2B incentive, loyalty, and customer appreciation gift card solution; and IO Security which provides automation to remediation. IDT Corporation was incorporated in 1978 and is headquartered in Newark, New Jersey.

About Data Storage

Data Storage Corporation provides data management and cloud solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers a suite of multi-cloud IT solutions, including cyber security solutions, which comprise ezSecurity, a security solution for endpoint security, system assessments, and risk analysis, as well as IBM system protection, including Ransomware defense. The company also provides data protection and recovery solutions, such as ezVault for offsite data protection; ezRecovery for fast data recovery; ezAvailability for real-time data replication with minimal recovery objectives; and ezMirror for data mirroring at the storage level. In addition, it offers cloud hosted production systems comprising ezHost, which delivers managed cloud services; and voice and data solutions, including Nexxis, which specializes in voice over internet protocol, internet access, and data transport solutions, which comprise dedicated internet services, SD-WAN options, and a cloud-based PBX solution. The company offers its solutions and services to businesses in healthcare, banking and finance, distribution services, manufacturing, construction, education, and government industries. Data Storage Corporation was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Melville, New York.