Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK) and Connecture (NASDAQ:CNXR) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation and dividends.
Volatility & Risk
Shutterstock has a beta of 1.4, meaning that its stock price is 40% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Connecture has a beta of 2.13, meaning that its stock price is 113% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
62.0% of Shutterstock shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.8% of Connecture shares are held by institutional investors. 47.3% of Shutterstock shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 58.1% of Connecture shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Shutterstock and Connecture’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Shutterstock | $517.47 million | 2.11 | $57.99 million | $0.81 | 38.89 |
| Connecture | $82.18 million | 0.17 | -$8.20 million | ($1.02) | -0.59 |
Shutterstock has higher revenue and earnings than Connecture. Connecture is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Shutterstock, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Shutterstock and Connecture’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Shutterstock | 5.59% | 11.08% | 6.34% |
| Connecture | -21.91% | N/A | -20.45% |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Shutterstock and Connecture, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Shutterstock | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1.86 |
| Connecture | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
Shutterstock currently has a consensus price target of $42.40, suggesting a potential upside of 34.60%. Given Shutterstock’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Shutterstock is more favorable than Connecture.
Summary
Shutterstock beats Connecture on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Shutterstock
Shutterstock, Inc. (Shutterstock) is a global technology company that operates a two-sided marketplace for professionals to license content. The Company’s library of content includes digital imagery, which consists of licensed photographs, vectors, illustrations and video clips that customers use in their visual communications, such as Websites, digital and print marketing materials, corporate communications, books, publications and video content, and commercial music, which consists of music tracks and sound effects and which is often used to complement digital imagery. It also offers digital asset management services through its cloud-based digital asset management platform (webdam). Its global marketplace brings together users and contributors of content by providing a collection of content its customers can pay to license and incorporate into their work and by compensating contributors as their content is licensed to customers.
About Connecture
Connecture, Inc. provides a Web-based consumer shopping, enrollment and retention platform for health insurance distribution. The Company caters its services to health insurance marketplace operators, such as health plans, brokers and exchange operators. It operates through four segments: Enterprise/Commercial, Enterprise/State, Medicare and Private Exchange. The Enterprise/Commercial segment offers insurance distribution solutions to health plans. The Enterprise/State segment offers the sales automation solutions to state Governments, which allow its customers to offer customized individual and small group exchanges. The Medicare segment offers Web-based Medicare plan comparison, prescription drug comparison and enrollment tools for health plans, pharmacy benefit managers, pharmacies, field marketing organizations and call centers. The Private Exchange segment offers defined-contribution benefit exchange solutions to benefit consultants, brokers, exchange operators and aggregators.
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