Analyzing Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) and Betawave (OTCMKTS:BWAV)

Betawave (OTCMKTS:BWAV) and Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) are both communication services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Betawave and Baidu, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Betawave	0	0	0	0	0.00
Baidu	4	2	16	1	2.61

Baidu has a consensus price target of $154.89, suggesting a potential upside of 63.28%. Given Baidu’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Baidu is more favorable than Betawave.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Betawave and Baidu”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Betawave	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Baidu	$18.46 billion	1.75	$799.00 million	($2.11)	-44.96

Baidu has higher revenue and earnings than Betawave.

Profitability

This table compares Betawave and Baidu’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Betawave	N/A	N/A	N/A
Baidu	-2.63%	4.30%	2.64%

Volatility and Risk

Betawave has a beta of -7.39, indicating that its share price is 839% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Baidu has a beta of 0.57, indicating that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Baidu beats Betawave on 8 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Betawave

Betawave Corporation provides online advertising services for a portfolio of websites. It delivers advertising to audiences of highly-engaged users. The company has a network of websites in three online categories: immersive casual gaming, virtual world, and social play and entertainment. It specializes in helping brand marketers reach the attentive audiences on various Web sites through ad formats. It serves advertisers in various categories, including consumer packaged goods, entertainment, consumer electronics and software, and retail. The company's advertising in the publisher sites includes direct sales category comprising IAB graphical advertising and rich media/immersive advertising; and remnant inventory category, which are advertising inventory on a website that is not sold directly to an advertiser. It sells its inventory and marketing services through a sales and marketing organization in the United States. The company was formerly known as GoFish Corporation and changed its name to Betawave Corporation in January 2009. Betawave Corporation was incorporated in 2003 and is based in San Francisco, California.

About Baidu

Baidu, Inc. engages in the provision of internet search services in China. It operates through two segments: Baidu Core and iQIYI. The company offers Baidu App to access search, feed, and other services using mobile devices; Baidu Search to access its search and other services; Baidu Feed that provides users with personalized timeline based on their demographics and interests; Baidu Health that helps users to find the doctor and hospital for healthcare needs; and Haokan, a short video app. It also provides Baidu Knows, an online community where users can ask questions to other users; Baidu Wiki; Baidu Experience; Baidu Post; ERNIE Bot, conversational AI bot; Baidu Wenku; Baidu Maps, a voice-enabled mobile app that provides travel-related services; Baidu Drive; Baijiahao; and DuerOS, a smart assistant platform. In addition, it offers online marketing services, which include pay for performance, an auction-based services that allow customers to bid for priority placement of paid sponsored links and reach users who search for information related to their products or services; other marketing services that include display-based marketing services and other online marketing services based on performance criteria other than cost per click; mobile ecosystem, a portfolio of apps, including Baidu App, Haokan, and Baidu Post; various cloud services and solutions, such as platform as a service, software as a service, and infrastructure as a service; self-driving services, including maps, automated valet parking, navigation pilot, electric vehicles, and robotaxi fleets, as well as Xiaodu smart devices. Further, the company provides iQIYI, an online entertainment service, including original and licensed content; other video content and membership; and online advertising services. It has strategic partnership with Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. The company was formerly known as Baidu.com, Inc. Baidu, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.