Head-To-Head Comparison: Marchex (NASDAQ:MCHX) vs. LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN)

LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) and Marchex (NASDAQ:MCHX) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

79.8% of LivePerson shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.5% of Marchex shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of LivePerson shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.5% of Marchex shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

LivePerson has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Marchex has a beta of 1.93, meaning that its stock price is 93% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares LivePerson and Marchex’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LivePerson	-51.72%	N/A	-7.71%
Marchex	-10.38%	-13.57%	-10.40%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for LivePerson and Marchex, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LivePerson	1	1	0	0	1.50
Marchex	2	0	0	0	1.00

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LivePerson and Marchex”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LivePerson	$312.47 million	0.12	-$134.27 million	($27.95)	-0.11
Marchex	$46.49 million	1.58	-$4.95 million	($0.11)	-15.10

Marchex has lower revenue, but higher earnings than LivePerson. Marchex is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LivePerson, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

About LivePerson

LivePerson, Inc. engages in conversational artificial intelligence. It enables brands to leverage the Conversational Cloud's intelligence engine to connect with consumers through an integrated suite of mobile and online business messaging technologies. The company offers the Conversational Cloud, an enterprise-class digital customer conversation platform, which enables businesses and consumers to connect through conversational channels, such as voice, in-app, and mobile messaging. It also provides professional services; LivePerson's Conversational AI, including conversation builder, manager, and intelligence, and intent manager. In addition, it provides Voice AI, conversational intelligence and insights, and integration services. The company sells its products to Fortune 500 companies, Internet businesses, online merchants, automotive dealers, educational institution, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations. It operates in the United States, Canada, Latin America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Asia-Pacific. LivePerson, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Marchex

Marchex, Inc., a conversation intelligence company, provides conversational analytics and related solutions in the United States, Canada, and internationally. Its products include Marketing Edge that identifies which campaigns and channels are driving inbound conversations, evaluates what happens during those conversations, and closes the sales loop by connecting converted sales to marketing driven leads; Sonar Business Text Messaging, an artificial intelligence (AI) empowered intelligent workflow enabled mobile messaging solution that enables operations, sales, and marketing teams to communicate personally with field staff, prospects, and customers; Marchex Platform Services, a robust API-based conversation intelligence product that allows executives, sales, customer engagement, and marketing teams to apply Marchex AI to most any calls, regardless of communication platform, in order to identify actionable insights from conversations with their customers; Spotlight, an AI conversation analytics product for multi-location businesses; and Engage, a solution that provides locations with applications to enhance their overall performance. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.