Financial Survey: Kakaku.com (OTCMKTS:KKKUF) versus Perion Network (NASDAQ:PERI)

Kakaku.com (OTCMKTS:KKKUF) and Perion Network (NASDAQ:PERI) are both communication services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Kakaku.com and Perion Network, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Kakaku.com	0	1	1	0	2.50
Perion Network	0	1	3	0	2.75

Perion Network has a consensus target price of $40.60, suggesting a potential upside of 18.26%. Given Perion Network’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Perion Network is more favorable than Kakaku.com.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Kakaku.com and Perion Network’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Kakaku.com	N/A	N/A	N/A	$43.08	0.26
Perion Network	$640.26 million	2.48	$99.22 million	$2.23	15.39

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

Profitability

This table compares Kakaku.com and Perion Network’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Kakaku.com	N/A	N/A	N/A
Perion Network	15.82%	22.62%	15.83%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

24.1% of Kakaku.com shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 60.8% of Perion Network shares are held by institutional investors. 2.8% of Perion Network shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Perion Network beats Kakaku.com on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Kakaku.com

Kakaku.com, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of purchase support, restaurant review, and other services in Japan. The company operates Kakaku.com, that provides prices, specifications, and user reviews, on various products and services, such as computers, home appliances, smartphones, interiors, fashion, internet providers, and insurances; and Tabelog.com, a restaurant discovery and reservation site. It also operates Kyujin box and Jobcube, job classified websites; Sumaity, a residential real estate website; 4 travel, a travel review and comparison site; icotto, an online travel Information media site; Bus Hikaku Navi, a price comparison site for highway/overnight buses and bus tours; Low price trips, a price comparison site for domestic travel and overseas airline tickets; and Bus Trip, an online media on highway busses and bus tours. In addition, the company operates kinarino, a lifestyle media; TASCLAP an online media for men's fashion; Pathee, a shopping spot information site; eiga.com, an online database for movies and showtimes; Akiba-souken, an animation and Akihabara culture information media; PHOTOHITO, a photo sharing community site; webCG, an online media for car enthusiasts; and FX-rashinban, a FX related information, commentary, and forecast site on foreign exchange market. Kakaku.com, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About Perion Network

Perion Network Ltd. provides digital advertising solutions to brands, agencies, and publishers in North America, Europe, and internationally. It provides Wildfire, a content monetization platform; search monetization solutions, including website monetization, search mediation, and app monetization; and cross-channel digital advertising software as a service platform. The company also offers supply management platform; demand management platform for campaign planning and design; analytics platform, which provides information and performance insights; creative platform, a robust media platform; and an AI platform that uses machine learning to bring intelligence to the various phases of campaigns. In addition, it provides an actionable performance monitoring platform to support the various phases of campaign management; an online video player and integrated ad server to upload, manage, and stream video content; content monetization system, which integrates ads within the content layouts at the page level. Further, the company offers a publisher management system that provides analytics and performance optimization tools, as well as reports; search-demand management systems; monetization products that integrate and onboards demand vendors; and AI Systems. Additionally, it provides Intelligent HUB (iHUB), which connects the supply and demand sides of the marketplace; and strategic optimization of relevant traits (SORT), a provisional patent technology that eliminates the need for cookies. The company was formerly known as IncrediMail Ltd. and changed its name to Perion Network Ltd. in November 2011. Perion Network Ltd. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Holon, Israel.