Head to Head Contrast: MarketWise (NASDAQ:MKTW) & UBS Group (NYSE:UBS)

UBS Group (NYSE:UBS) and MarketWise (NASDAQ:MKTW) are both finance companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Risk & Volatility

UBS Group has a beta of 1.21, meaning that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MarketWise has a beta of 0.21, meaning that its stock price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares UBS Group and MarketWise’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
UBS Group	13.10%	10.50%	0.57%
MarketWise	0.70%	-0.96%	1.10%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

23.0% of MarketWise shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of UBS Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.9% of MarketWise shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for UBS Group and MarketWise, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
UBS Group	2	5	4	0	2.18
MarketWise	0	1	1	0	2.50

UBS Group presently has a consensus price target of $60.30, suggesting a potential upside of 26.32%. Given UBS Group’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe UBS Group is more favorable than MarketWise.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares UBS Group and MarketWise”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
UBS Group	$76.12 billion	1.96	$7.77 billion	$2.94	16.24
MarketWise	$328.12 million	0.97	$5.62 million	$0.88	22.85

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

Dividends

UBS Group pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. MarketWise pays an annual dividend of $1.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. UBS Group pays out 12.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. MarketWise pays out 113.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. UBS Group has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years and MarketWise has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Summary

UBS Group beats MarketWise on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About UBS Group

UBS Group AG provides financial advice and solutions to private, institutional, and corporate clients worldwide. It operates through five divisions: Global Wealth Management, Personal & Corporate Banking, Asset Management, Investment Bank, and Non-core and Legacy. The company offers investment advice, estate and wealth planning, investing, corporate and banking, and investment management, as well as mortgage, securities-based, and structured lending solutions. It also provides personal banking products and services, such as deposits, credit and debit cards, and online and mobile banking, as well as lending, investments, retirement, and wealth management services; and corporate and institutional solutions, including equity and debt capital markets, syndicated and structured credit, private placements, leasing, traditional financing, and transaction banking solutions for payment and cash management services, trade and export finance, and global custody solutions. In addition, the company offers equities, fixed income, hedge funds, real estate and private markets, indexed and alternative beta strategies, asset allocation and currency investment strategies, customized multi-asset solutions, advisory and fiduciary services, and multi-manager hedge fund solutions and advisory services. Further, it advises clients on strategic business opportunities and helps them raise capital to fund their activities; enables its clients to buy, sell, and finance securities on capital markets and to manage their risks and liquidity; distributes, trades in, finances, and clears cash equities and equity-linked products; structures, originates, and distributes new equity and equity-linked issues; and originates, distributes, manages risk, and provides liquidity in foreign exchange, rates, credit and precious metals. The company was formerly known as UBS AG and changed its name to UBS Group AG in December 2014. UBS Group AG was founded in 1862 and is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland.

About MarketWise

MarketWise, Inc. operates a content and technology multi-brand platform for self-directed investors in the United States and Internationally. Its platform includes subscription businesses that provides financial research, software, education, and tools to navigate the financial markets. The company offers various investment strategies, such as value investing, income, growth, commodities, cryptocurrencies, venture, crowdfunded investing, biotechnology, mutual funds, options, and trading; investment research product portfolio through a range of media, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile; and financial newsletters. It provides a suite of stock research tools and portfolio management services under the Chaikin Analytics brand; portfolio management software tools under the TradeSmith brand name; and database of accounting-based financial summaries under the Altimetry brand. In addition, the company develops screeners, monitors, portfolio management tools, and proprietary indicators that produce a composite score to rank publicly traded companies. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.