Critical Survey: JOYY (NASDAQ:JOYY) vs. Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK)

Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) and JOYY (NASDAQ:JOYY) are both communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings and profitability.

Earnings and Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shutterstock	$989.92 million	0.18	$45.50 million	($5.65)	-0.88
JOYY	$2.12 billion	1.82	$2.10 billion	$4.19	18.80

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shutterstock	-22.87%	13.61%	5.49%
JOYY	9.64%	3.28%	2.85%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Shutterstock and JOYY, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shutterstock	1	1	1	0	2.00
JOYY	0	1	6	0	2.86

Shutterstock presently has a consensus price target of $7.00, indicating a potential upside of 41.56%. JOYY has a consensus price target of $83.40, indicating a potential upside of 5.89%. Given Shutterstock’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Shutterstock is more favorable than JOYY.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.8% of Shutterstock shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.8% of JOYY shares are held by institutional investors. 32.3% of Shutterstock shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 43.0% of JOYY shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Shutterstock has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, JOYY has a beta of 0.45, suggesting that its share price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Shutterstock pays an annual dividend of $1.44 per share and has a dividend yield of 29.1%. JOYY pays an annual dividend of $5.98 per share and has a dividend yield of 7.6%. Shutterstock pays out -25.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. JOYY pays out 142.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Shutterstock has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years. Shutterstock is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

JOYY beats Shutterstock on 9 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shutterstock

Shutterstock, Inc. provides platform to connect brands and businesses to high quality content in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers image services consisting of photographs, vectors, and illustrations, which is used in visual communications, such as websites, digital and print marketing materials, corporate communications, books, publications, and others; footage services, including video clips, filmed by industry experts and cinema grade video effects in HD and 4K formats that are integrated into websites, social media, marketing campaigns, and cinematic productions; and music services comprising music tracks and sound effects, which are used to complement images and footage. It also provides 3 dimensional models consisting of 3D models used in various industries, such as advertising, media and video production, gaming, retail, education, design, and architecture; and generative AI content comprising images generated from algorithms trained with ethically sourced content. The company offers its services under the Shutterstock, Pond5, TurboSquid, PicMonkey, PremiumBeat, Splash News, Bigstock, and Offset brand names. In addition, it operates a collection of graphics interchange format visuals and stickers that supplies casual conversational content. The company serves corporate professionals and organizations, media and broadcast companies, and small and medium-sized businesses, and individual creators through digital, live sales, and client management channels. Shutterstock, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About JOYY

JOYY Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates social media platforms that offer users engaging and experience across various video and audio-based social platforms. The company operates Bigo Live, a live streaming platform that allows users to live stream specific moments, such as live talk with other users, make video calls, and watch trend videos; Likee, a short-form video social platform that focuses on enabling users to create short-form video; Hago, a casual game-oriented social platform; and imo, a chat and instant messaging application with functions, including video calls, text messages, and photo and video sharing. It operates in the People’s Republic of China, the United States, the Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia and others. 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.