Contrasting comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) and Gray Media (NYSE:GTN)

Gray Media (NYSE:GTN) and comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Risk & Volatility

Gray Media has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, comScore has a beta of 1.07, suggesting that its stock price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Gray Media and comScore”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gray Media	$3.10 billion	0.16	-$85.00 million	($0.61)	-7.97
comScore	$357.47 million	0.21	-$10.00 million	$4.10	1.22

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Gray Media and comScore, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gray Media	1	2	3	0	2.33
comScore	1	0	1	0	2.00

Gray Media currently has a consensus price target of $7.88, suggesting a potential upside of 61.97%. Given Gray Media’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Gray Media is more favorable than comScore.

Profitability

This table compares Gray Media and comScore’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gray Media	-0.83%	-1.12%	-0.23%
comScore	24.01%	133.03%	24.12%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

78.6% of Gray Media shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.1% of comScore shares are held by institutional investors. 8.9% of Gray Media shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.1% of comScore 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.

Summary

comScore beats Gray Media on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gray Media

Gray Television, Inc., a television broadcasting company, owns and/or operates television stations and digital assets in the United States. It also broadcasts secondary digital channels affiliated to ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX, as well as various other networks and program services, including CW Plus Network, MY Network, the MeTV Network, Circle, Telemundo, THE365, and Outlaw; and local news/weather channels in various markets. It owns and operates television stations and digital assets that serve television markets in the United States. The company was formerly known as Gray Communications Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Gray Television, Inc. in August 2002. Gray Television, Inc. was founded in 1891 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. operates as an information and analytics company that measures audiences, consumer behavior, and advertising across media platforms in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and internationally. The company provides digital ad solutions, including Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix, which measure websites and applications on computers, smartphones, and tablets; Video Metrix that delivers measurement of digital video consumption; Plan Metrix, which offers understanding of consumer lifestyle; Total Home Panel Suite, which capture OTT, connected TV, and IOT device usage and content consumption; CCR, which enhances validated campaign essentials verification of mobile and desktop video campaigns; XMedia Enhanced, which provides a deduplicated view of national programming content; Comscore marketing solutions; Lift Models, which measures the impact of advertising on a brand; Survey Analytics, which measure various consumer insights including brand health metrics; and Activation Solutions, including audience activation and content activation. The company's cross platform solutions products and services comprises Comscore TVNational that helps customers understand the performance of network advertising campaigns; Comscore TVLocal allows customers to understand consumer viewing patterns and characteristics; OnDemand Essentials that provides transactional tracking and reporting; Movie Solutions; and Hollywood Software Suite. In addition, it offers custom solutions for planning, optimization, and evaluation of advertising campaigns and brand protection. Further, the company provides products that measure movie viewership and box office results by capturing movie ticket sales in real time or near real time. It serves digital publishers, television networks, movie studios, content owners, brand advertisers, agencies, and technology providers. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.