Head to Head Contrast: MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) & Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR)

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) and Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares MediaAlpha and Shift4 Payments’ top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MediaAlpha	$388.15 million	3.27	-$40.42 million	($0.89)	-21.67
Shift4 Payments	$2.56 billion	2.09	$86.20 million	$1.42	43.76

Shift4 Payments has higher revenue and earnings than MediaAlpha. MediaAlpha is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Shift4 Payments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.9% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by institutional investors. 11.5% of MediaAlpha shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 32.1% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares MediaAlpha and Shift4 Payments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MediaAlpha	-10.41%	N/A	-27.85%
Shift4 Payments	3.36%	27.35%	5.88%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for MediaAlpha and Shift4 Payments, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MediaAlpha	1	0	5	0	2.67
Shift4 Payments	1	1	19	0	2.86

MediaAlpha presently has a consensus target price of $18.20, suggesting a potential downside of 5.65%. Shift4 Payments has a consensus target price of $84.52, suggesting a potential upside of 36.02%. Given Shift4 Payments’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Shift4 Payments is more favorable than MediaAlpha.

Risk & Volatility

MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.35, indicating that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shift4 Payments has a beta of 1.57, indicating that its share price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Shift4 Payments beats MediaAlpha on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MediaAlpha

MediaAlpha, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates an insurance customer acquisition platform in the United States. It optimizes customer acquisition in various verticals of property and casualty insurance, health insurance, and life insurance. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About Shift4 Payments

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE FOUR) provides integrated payment processing and technology solutions in the United States. Its payments platform provides omni-channel card acceptance and processing solutions, including end-to-end payment processing for various payment types; merchant acquiring; proprietary omni-channel gateway; complementary software integrations; integrated and mobile point-of-sale (POS) solutions; security and risk management solutions; and reporting and analytical tools, as well as tokenization, risk management/underwriting, payment device and chargeback management, fraud prevention, and gift card solutions. The company also offers suite of technology solutions, such as Lighthouse, a cloud-based business intelligence tool that includes customer engagement, social media management, online reputation management, scheduling, and product pricing, as well as reporting and analytics; integrated POS for merchants business; and Skytab, a mobile payment solution. In addition, it provides marketplace technology that enable seamless integrations into third-party applications, which includes online delivery services, payroll, timekeeping, and other human resource services. Further, the company offers merchant management, training and education, marketing management, and incentives tracking solutions. Additionally, it provides merchant underwriting, onboarding and activation, training, risk management, and support services; and software integrations and compliance management, and partner support and services. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.