Critical Survey: VCI Global (NASDAQ:VCIG) vs. Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL)

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL) and VCI Global (NASDAQ:VCIG) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.7% of Planet Labs PBC shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.2% of VCI Global shares are held by institutional investors. 16.4% of Planet Labs PBC shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Planet Labs PBC and VCI Global”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Planet Labs PBC	$307.73 million	27.71	-$246.86 million	($1.14)	-20.99
VCI Global	$26.09 million	0.02	-$30.26 million	N/A	N/A

VCI Global has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Planet Labs PBC.

Risk & Volatility

Planet Labs PBC has a beta of 2.11, meaning that its stock price is 111% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VCI Global has a beta of 7.87, meaning that its stock price is 687% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Planet Labs PBC and VCI Global’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Planet Labs PBC	-111.17%	-105.29%	-35.54%
VCI Global	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Planet Labs PBC and VCI Global, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Planet Labs PBC	2	4	6	0	2.33
VCI Global	1	0	0	0	1.00

Planet Labs PBC currently has a consensus target price of $35.36, suggesting a potential upside of 47.79%. Given Planet Labs PBC’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Planet Labs PBC is more favorable than VCI Global.

Summary

Planet Labs PBC beats VCI Global on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Planet Labs PBC

Planet Labs PBC engages in the design, construction, and launch constellations of satellites with the intent of providing high cadence geospatial data delivered to customers through an online platform worldwide. The company’s platform offers planet monitoring, basemap, tasking, apps, and application programming interfaces, as well as analytics and planetary variables. It serves agriculture, mapping, energy, forestry, finance and insurance companies, and government agencies. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About VCI Global

VCI Global Limited, together with its subsidiaries, provides business and technology consulting services in Malaysia. The company offers business strategy consultancy services, including listing solutions, investors relations, and boardroom strategies consultancy. It also provides technology consultancy services and solutions, such as digital development, fintech solution, and software solutions. In addition, the company engages in corporate and business advisory services in corporate finance, corporate structuring and restructuring, equity investment, and merger and acquisition; listings on recognized stock exchanges; fintech advisory; technology development; and computer software programming. Further, it is involved in provision of artificial intelligence; image processing; communication; networking and process control software services; money lending services; education and training services; real estate management consultancy services; and leasing and operational management of resort properties. The company serves its products to small-medium enterprises and government-linked agencies, as well as to publicly traded conglomerates across various industries. VCI Global Limited was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.