Head-To-Head Contrast: NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT) & Brand Engagement Network (NASDAQ:BNAI)

Brand Engagement Network (NASDAQ:BNAI) and NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Brand Engagement Network and NetScout Systems, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Brand Engagement Network	0	0	0	0	N/A
NetScout Systems	0	1	0	0	2.00

NetScout Systems has a consensus price target of $30.00, indicating a potential upside of 50.75%. Given NetScout Systems’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe NetScout Systems is more favorable than Brand Engagement Network.

Volatility & Risk

Brand Engagement Network has a beta of -0.05, meaning that its share price is 105% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NetScout Systems has a beta of 0.64, meaning that its share price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Brand Engagement Network and NetScout Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Brand Engagement Network	N/A	-19.90%	-16.34%
NetScout Systems	-14.21%	4.57%	3.38%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

15.8% of Brand Engagement Network shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of NetScout Systems shares are owned by institutional investors. 62.9% of Brand Engagement Network shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.6% of NetScout Systems shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Brand Engagement Network and NetScout Systems’ gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Brand Engagement Network	N/A	N/A	-$6.88 million	N/A	N/A
NetScout Systems	$914.53 million	1.55	$59.65 million	($1.69)	-11.78

NetScout Systems has higher revenue and earnings than Brand Engagement Network.

Summary

NetScout Systems beats Brand Engagement Network on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Brand Engagement Network

Brand Engagement Network, Inc. provides conversational AI assistants. The company offers security-focused, multimodal communication, and human-like assistants. Its AI assistants are built on proprietary natural language processing, anomaly detection, multisensory awareness, sentiment, and environmental analysis, as well as real-time individuation and personalization capabilities. It serves the automotive, healthcare, and other industries through direct sales force and channel partners. Brand Engagement Network, Inc. was formerly known as Blockchain Exchange Network Inc. and changed its name to Brand Engagement Network, Inc. in April 2023. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Jackson, Wyoming.

About NetScout Systems

NetScout Systems, Inc. provides service assurance and cybersecurity solutions for protect digital business services against disruptions in the United States, Europe, Asia, and internationally. The company offers nGeniusONE management software that enables customers to predict, preempt, and resolve network and service delivery problems, as well as facilitate the optimization and capacity planning of their network infrastructures; and specialized platforms and analytic modules that enable its customers to analyze and troubleshoot traffic in radio access and Wi-Fi networks. It also provides nGeniusPULSE, an active testing tool that enables enterprises to identify infrastructure performance issues and determine application availability, reliability, and performance; and nGenius Business Analytics solution, which enables service providers to analyze their network traffic. In addition, the company offers ISNG, an advanced passive network probe; packet flow systems that deliver targeted network traffic access to various monitoring and security tools and systems; and a suite of test access points that enable non-disruptive access to network traffic. Further, it provides cybersecurity solutions to protect their networks against distributed denial of service attacks under the Arbor brand, such as Arbor Sightline, Arbor Threat Mitigation System, Arbor Insight, Arbor Edge Defense, and Arbor Cloud. Additionally, the company offers advanced threat detection solutions, such as Omnis Cyber Investigator. It serves enterprise customers in various industries, including financial services, technology, manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, education, transportation, and retail; mobile operators, wireline operators, cable operators, Internet service providers, and cloud providers; and governmental agencies through a direct sales force, and indirect reseller and distribution channels. The company was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts.