Critical Contrast: JOYY (NASDAQ:YY) & Snap (NYSE:SNAP)

JOYY (NASDAQ:YY) and Snap (NYSE:SNAP) are both mid-cap communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and risk.

Volatility and Risk

JOYY has a beta of 0.21, meaning that its stock price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Snap has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares JOYY and Snap”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
JOYY	$2.24 billion	1.77	$301.82 million	($3.10)	-23.73
Snap	$6.10 billion	1.40	-$460.49 million	($0.24)	-21.04

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

36.8% of JOYY shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.5% of Snap shares are owned by institutional investors. 43.0% of JOYY shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 22.7% of Snap shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for JOYY and Snap, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
JOYY	0	0	2	0	3.00
Snap	2	25	8	1	2.22

JOYY presently has a consensus target price of $66.00, suggesting a potential downside of 10.29%. Snap has a consensus target price of $7.23, suggesting a potential upside of 43.18%. Given Snap’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Snap is more favorable than JOYY.

Profitability

This table compares JOYY and Snap’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
JOYY	9.02%	4.64%	2.96%
Snap	-6.72%	-18.92%	-5.44%

Summary

JOYY beats Snap on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About JOYY

JOYY Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates social media platforms that offer users engaging and experience across various video-based social platforms. It operates through two segments, BIGO and All Other. The company operates Bigo Live, a social live streaming platform, that provides an interactive online stage for users to host and watch live streaming sessions, share their life moments, showcase their talents, and interact with people worldwide; Likee, a short-form video social platform, which enables users to discover, create, and share short videos, with video creation tools and personalized feeds; imo, an instant messenger platform, that provides audio and video communication services; Hago, a social networking platform that offers casual games integrating social features, such as audio and video multi-user chatrooms and 3D virtual interactive party games; and Shopline, a smart commerce platform, that provides solutions and services to enable merchants in creating and growing their brands online and reach customers through various sales channels, including e-commerce platforms, social commerce, and physical retail stores. It operates in the People's Republic of China, the United States, the Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and internationally. The company was formerly known as YY Inc. and changed its name to JOYY Inc. in December 2019. JOYY Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Singapore.

About Snap

Snap Inc. operates as a technology company in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers Snapchat, a visual messaging application with various tabs, such as camera, visual messaging, snap map, stories, and spotlight that enable people to communicate visually through short videos and images. It also provides Spectacles, an eyewear product that connects with Snapchat and captures photos and video from a human perspective; and advertising products, including AR ads and Snap ads comprises a single image or video ads, collection ads, dynamic ads, story ads, and commercials. The company was formerly known as Snapchat, Inc. and changed its name to Snap Inc. in September 2016. Snap Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.