Financial Review: Bit Digital (NASDAQ:BTBT) versus Vasta Platform (NASDAQ:VSTA)

Vasta Platform (NASDAQ:VSTA) and Bit Digital (NASDAQ:BTBT) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, risk and profitability.

Volatility and Risk

Vasta Platform has a beta of -0.29, suggesting that its share price is 129% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bit Digital has a beta of 3.84, suggesting that its share price is 284% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Vasta Platform and Bit Digital, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vasta Platform	1	1	0	0	1.50
Bit Digital	1	1	4	1	2.71

Bit Digital has a consensus price target of $4.38, indicating a potential upside of 187.83%. Given Bit Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Bit Digital is more favorable than Vasta Platform.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

15.8% of Vasta Platform shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 47.7% of Bit Digital shares are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of Vasta Platform shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.0% of Bit Digital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Vasta Platform and Bit Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vasta Platform	27.31%	1.53%	1.06%
Bit Digital	-237.19%	-10.66%	-6.81%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Vasta Platform and Bit Digital”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vasta Platform	$1.74 billion	0.23	$90.19 million	$1.02	4.80
Bit Digital	$113.56 million	4.83	-$80.32 million	($1.06)	-1.43

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

About Vasta Platform

Vasta Platform Limited provides educational printed and digital solutions to private schools operating in the K-12 education sector in Brazil. The company offers digital and printed textbooks, teacher handbooks, exercise books, multidisciplinary subject books, and student evaluations; and PAR platform that allows schools to select their preferred books and materials and follow their own specific teaching methods. It also provides traditional learning systems under the Anglo, Pitágoras, Rede Cristã de Educação, Maxi Ético, Fibonacci, Mackenzie, and Amplia brands; ongoing training for educators; and services to partner schools, including consulting services for school management and the organization of events, and a proprietary and differentiated evaluation system for partner schools and their students. In addition, the company offers Plurall that provides a digital learning experience and allows for tailor-made adjustments for each school; Plurall Maestro that develops digital solutions to help educators in planning and conducting classes; PROFS, a teacher training program; O Líder em Mim, a program with content, methodology, teaching material, and training to develop leadership; English Stars, an English educational platform; EduAll, a bilingual program to enhance its current solutions; Plurall Olímpico, a content for scientific competitions; MindMakers to develop leadership, collaboration, and persistence through multidisciplinary problem-solving exercises; Matific that provides interactive learning environments and adaptable worksheets; Plurall Store; Plurall Adapta for adaptive learning sessions; Plurall MeuProf to connect students with professors for private tutoring; Prepara to prepare students for external assessments; Leader in Me to develop socio-emotional competencies of K12 students; Education Systems, a structured teaching system for K12 students and teachers; and Prepara ENEM. Vasta Platform Limited was founded in 1966 and is based in São Paulo, Brazil.

About Bit Digital

Bit Digital, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the bitcoin mining business. It is also involved in the treasury management activities; and digital asset staking and digital asset mining businesses, as well as ethereum staking activities. In addition, it provides specialized cloud-infrastructure services for artificial intelligence applications. The company was formerly known as Golden Bull Limited and changed its name to Bit Digital, Inc. in September 2020. Bit Digital, Inc. was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in New York, New York.