CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) and Bitauto Holdings Limited (NYSE:BITA) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitabiliy and analyst recommendations.
Volatility and Risk
CoStar Group has a beta of 1.51, indicating that its share price is 51% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bitauto Holdings Limited has a beta of 3.06, indicating that its share price is 206% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for CoStar Group and Bitauto Holdings Limited, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| CoStar Group | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Bitauto Holdings Limited | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
CoStar Group currently has a consensus target price of $308.00, suggesting a potential upside of 9.54%. Bitauto Holdings Limited has a consensus target price of $34.00, suggesting a potential downside of 9.55%. Given CoStar Group’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe CoStar Group is more favorable than Bitauto Holdings Limited.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares CoStar Group and Bitauto Holdings Limited’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| CoStar Group | $894.73 million | 10.31 | $220.39 million | $2.99 | 94.04 |
| Bitauto Holdings Limited | $926.74 million | 3.12 | $95.77 million | ($1.07) | -35.13 |
CoStar Group has higher revenue, but lower earnings than Bitauto Holdings Limited. Bitauto Holdings Limited is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CoStar Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares CoStar Group and Bitauto Holdings Limited’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| CoStar Group | 10.85% | 7.19% | 5.49% |
| Bitauto Holdings Limited | -5.11% | 3.28% | 1.52% |
Insider & Institutional Ownership
18.9% of Bitauto Holdings Limited shares are held by institutional investors. 3.0% of CoStar Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
CoStar Group beats Bitauto Holdings Limited on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.
About CoStar Group
CoStar Group, Inc. (CoStar) is a provider of information, analytics and online marketplaces to the commercial real estate and related business community through its database of commercial real estate information covering the United States, the United Kingdom, and parts of Canada, Spain, Germany and France. The Company provides online marketplaces for commercial real estate, apartment rentals, lands for sale and businesses for sale. It manages its business geographically in two segments: North America, which includes the United States and Canada, and International, which includes the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and France. Its suite of information, analytics and online marketplaces is branded and marketed to its customers. Its services are primarily derived from a database of building-specific information and offer customers specialized tools for accessing, analyzing and using its information. It has five brands: CoStar, LoopNet, Apartments.com, BizBuySell and LandsofAmerica.
About Bitauto Holdings Limited
Bitauto Holdings Limited is a provider of Internet content and marketing services for China’s automotive industry. The Company’s bitauto.com and taoche.com Websites provide consumers with information on new and used automobile pricing, and promotional information, specifications, reviews and consumer feedback. The Company operates through three segments: advertising business, EP platform business and digital marketing solutions business. The advertising business offers a range of advertising services mainly to automakers through its Websites, as well as mobile applications. The EP platform business provides Web-based and mobile-based integrated digital marketing solutions to automobile customers in China. The digital marketing solutions business provides automakers with digital marketing solutions, including Website creation and maintenance, online public relations, online marketing campaigns and advertising agent services.
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