Financial Contrast: ZW Data Action Technologies (NASDAQ:CNET) vs. TechTarget (NASDAQ:TTGT)

ZW Data Action Technologies (NASDAQ:CNET) and TechTarget (NASDAQ:TTGT) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for ZW Data Action Technologies and TechTarget, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ZW Data Action Technologies	1	0	0	0	1.00
TechTarget	2	1	3	0	2.17

TechTarget has a consensus price target of $11.25, suggesting a potential upside of 115.52%. Given TechTarget’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe TechTarget is more favorable than ZW Data Action Technologies.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

0.0% of ZW Data Action Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.5% of TechTarget shares are held by institutional investors. 12.2% of ZW Data Action Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.9% of TechTarget shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

ZW Data Action Technologies has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its share price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TechTarget has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ZW Data Action Technologies and TechTarget”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ZW Data Action Technologies	$15.44 million	0.28	-$3.76 million	($0.74)	-1.76
TechTarget	$284.90 million	1.32	-$116.86 million	($1.73)	-3.02

ZW Data Action Technologies has higher earnings, but lower revenue than TechTarget. TechTarget is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ZW Data Action Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares ZW Data Action Technologies and TechTarget’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ZW Data Action Technologies	-33.25%	-59.11%	-21.51%
TechTarget	-232.59%	-16.76%	-11.15%

Summary

TechTarget beats ZW Data Action Technologies on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ZW Data Action Technologies

ZW Data Action Technologies Inc., through its subsidiaries, offers omni-channel advertising, precision marketing, and data analysis management systems in the People’s Republic of China. The company offers Internet advertising, precision marketing, and related data services to small and medium enterprises through its Internet portals, including 28.com and liansuo.com that provide advertisers with tools to build sales channels in the form of franchisees, sales agents, distributors, and/or resellers. It also develops and operates blockchain technology-based products and services, as well as blockchain-based SaaS services that provides one-stop blockchain-powered enterprise management solutions in forms of NFT generations, data record, share, and storage module subscriptions, etc. In addition, the company offers other e-commerce O2O advertising, and marketing and related value-added technical services. Additionally, it offers online-content production, distribution, promotion, and live streamer training and management services. The company was formerly known as ChinaNet Online Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to ZW Data Action Technologies Inc. in October 2020. Data Action Technologies Inc. was founded in 2003 and is based in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.

About TechTarget

TechTarget, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides marketing and sales services that deliver business impact for business-to-business technology companies in North America and internationally. The company's service enables technology vendors to identify, reach, and influence corporate information technology (IT) decision-makers actively researching specific IT purchases; and customized marketing programs that integrate demand generation, brand advertising techniques, and content curation and creation. It offers business to business services, such as IT Deal Alert, a suite of data, software, and services comprising Priority Engine and Qualified Sales Opportunities to identify and prioritize accounts and individuals actively researching new technology purchases or upgrades; demand solutions provides marketing programs, including white papers, webcasts, podcasts, videocasts, virtual trade shows, and content sponsorships; brand solutions which includes on-network banner advertising and digital sponsorships, off-network banner targeting, and microsites and related formats; custom content creation that delivers market insights and guidance to technology companies and off-the-shelf editorial sponsorship products on topics aligned to customer markets; and BrightTALK platform which allows customers to create, host and promote webinars, virtual events, and video content. In addition, the company operates websites, webinars, and virtual event channels that focus on a specific IT sector, such as storage, security, or networking; and enables registered members to conduct their pre-purchase research by accessing vendor supplied content through its virtual event and webinar channels, and website networks. TechTarget, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Newton, Massachusetts.