Critical Review: AdStar (OTCMKTS:ADST) vs. Stran & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWAG)

Stran & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWAG) and AdStar (OTCMKTS:ADST) are both business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Stran & Company, Inc. and AdStar, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Stran & Company, Inc.	1	0	0	0	1.00
AdStar	0	0	0	0	0.00

Given AdStar’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe AdStar is more favorable than Stran & Company, Inc..

Institutional and Insider Ownership

56.4% of Stran & Company, Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors. 49.6% of Stran & Company, Inc. shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 22.6% of AdStar shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Stran & Company, Inc. and AdStar”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Stran & Company, Inc.	$82.65 million	0.48	-$4.14 million	($0.09)	-24.22
AdStar	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

AdStar has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Stran & Company, Inc..

Profitability

This table compares Stran & Company, Inc. and AdStar’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Stran & Company, Inc.	-1.38%	-5.05%	-2.88%
AdStar	N/A	N/A	N/A

About Stran & Company, Inc.

Stran & Co., Inc. engages in the provision of promotional marketing and branded merchandise services. It offers promotional product, custom manufacturing, custom packaging, warehousing, and program management. The company was founded by Andrew Shape and Andrew Stranberg in 1994 and is headquartered in Quincy, MA.

About AdStar

AdStar, Inc. engages in the provision of advertising technology services to publishers. It focuses on its application service provider. The company was founded by Leslie Bernhard and Eli Rousso in 1986 and is headquartered in Marina del Rey, CA.