MeridianLink (NYSE:MLNK) & CXApp (NASDAQ:CXAI) Critical Analysis

CXApp (NASDAQ:CXAI) and MeridianLink (NYSE:MLNK) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

14.4% of CXApp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.7% of MeridianLink shares are held by institutional investors. 89.1% of CXApp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.3% of MeridianLink shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for CXApp and MeridianLink, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CXApp	0	0	1	0	3.00
MeridianLink	2	4	2	0	2.00

MeridianLink has a consensus price target of $19.60, indicating a potential upside of 11.17%. Given MeridianLink’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MeridianLink is more favorable than CXApp.

Volatility & Risk

CXApp has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MeridianLink has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares CXApp and MeridianLink’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CXApp	N/A	N/A	$8.35 million	N/A	N/A
MeridianLink	$303.62 million	4.44	-$42.54 million	($0.54)	-32.65

CXApp has higher earnings, but lower revenue than MeridianLink.

Profitability

This table compares CXApp and MeridianLink’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CXApp	N/A	26.84%	20.93%
MeridianLink	-14.01%	-6.77%	-3.59%

Summary

CXApp beats MeridianLink on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CXApp

CXApp Inc. provides a workplace experience platform for enterprise customers. It offers CXApp, a software-as-a-service platform with native mapping, analytics, on-device positioning, and applications technologies for use in various applications, such as workplace experience, employee engagement, desk and meeting room reservations, workplace analytics, occupancy management, content delivery, corporate communications and notifications, event management, live indoor mapping, wayfinding, and navigation. The company was formerly known as KINS Technology Group Inc. and changed its name to CXApp Inc. in March 2023. The company is based in Palo Alto, California.

About MeridianLink

MeridianLink, Inc., a software and services company, provides software solutions for banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, specialty lending providers, and consumer reporting agencies in the United States. The company offers MeridianLink One, a multi-product platform that can be tailored to meet the needs of customers as they digitally transform their organizations and adapt to changing business and consumer demands; MeridianLink Portal, a Point of Sale system that allows financial institutions to expand existing lending and deposit account; MeridianLink Opening, a cloud-based online account opening and deposit software solution; MeridianLink Consumer, a full loan solution suite to banks and credit unions; and MeridianLink DecisionLender, a loan origination software (LOS) for finance companies. It also provides MeridianLink Mortgage, a cloud-based software designed for financial professionals to optimize the end-to-end mortgage loan origination process; MeridianLink Collect, a web-based debt collection software; Mortgage Credit Link, a web-based order fulfillment hub; and MeridianLink Business, a cloud-based platform that offers business lending solutions for banks and credit unions. In addition, the company provides analytics and business intelligence tools through MeridianLink Engage, MeridianLink Consulting, MeridianLink Data Connect, and MeridianLink Insight; Data Verification Software Solution, a cloud-based order fulfillment hub for bankers and credit officers; and loan origination systems, other credit decisioning tools, and additional solution modules. MeridianLink, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California.