Head to Head Comparison: System1 (NYSE:SST) versus Adaptive Medias (OTCMKTS:ADTM)

Adaptive Medias (OTCMKTS:ADTM) and System1 (NYSE:SST) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Adaptive Medias and System1, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Adaptive Medias	0	0	0	0	0.00
System1	1	0	1	0	2.00

System1 has a consensus target price of $10.00, suggesting a potential upside of 154.45%. Given System1’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe System1 is more favorable than Adaptive Medias.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Adaptive Medias and System1″s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Adaptive Medias	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
System1	$343.92 million	0.11	-$74.67 million	($8.53)	-0.46

Adaptive Medias has higher earnings, but lower revenue than System1.

Profitability

This table compares Adaptive Medias and System1’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Adaptive Medias	N/A	N/A	N/A
System1	-22.78%	-109.87%	-15.60%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.5% of System1 shares are held by institutional investors. 13.2% of System1 shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

System1 beats Adaptive Medias on 6 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Adaptive Medias

Adaptive Medias, Inc. offers programmatic audience and content monetization. It provides these unique capabilities to monetize content efficiently across multiple marketing channels, including mobile, video and online display advertising. The company was founded by Omar Akram, Sal Aziz, and Qayed Murtaza Shareef on August 7, 2007 and is headquartered in Irvine, CA.

About System1

System1, Inc. provides omnichannel customer acquisition platform services through its proprietary responsive acquisition marketing platform in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Owned and Operated Advertising, and Partner Network. The company engages in the provision of acquiring traffic to its owned and operated websites, as well as revenue-sharing arrangements and related services. It also operates MapQuest, a web-based navigation service that delivers turn-by-turn direction services to users; Info.com, a metasearch engine that consumers can use to search for relevant information; HowStuffWorks, a commercial website focused on helping people solve problems in their daily lives by using various types of digital media to easily breakdown and explain complex concepts, topics, terminology and mechanisms; Startpage, a private search engine that allows users to browse and search the Internet in complete privacy; and CouponFollow for coupon destinations for online shoppers, as well as ActiveBeat and Infospace. In addition, the company provides antivirus software solutions, which offers customers a single packaged solution that provides protection and reporting to the end users. The company is based in Los Angeles, California.