Reviewing ARTISTdirect (OTCMKTS:ARTD) and Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA)

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) and ARTISTdirect (OTCMKTS:ARTD) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Alibaba Group and ARTISTdirect, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alibaba Group	1	2	17	0	2.80
ARTISTdirect	0	0	0	0	0.00

Alibaba Group currently has a consensus price target of $192.11, suggesting a potential upside of 27.29%. Given Alibaba Group’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Alibaba Group is more favorable than ARTISTdirect.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Alibaba Group and ARTISTdirect”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alibaba Group	$137.30 billion	2.62	$17.93 billion	$7.24	20.85
ARTISTdirect	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Alibaba Group has higher revenue and earnings than ARTISTdirect.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

13.5% of Alibaba Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.5% of Alibaba Group shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Alibaba Group and ARTISTdirect’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alibaba Group	12.38%	10.51%	6.18%
ARTISTdirect	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Alibaba Group beats ARTISTdirect on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alibaba Group

Alibaba Group Holding Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help merchants, brands, retailers, and other businesses to engage with their users and customers in the People's Republic of China and internationally. The company operates through seven segments: China Commerce, International Commerce, Local Consumer Services, Cainiao, Cloud, Digital Media and Entertainment, and Innovation Initiatives and Others. It operates Taobao, a digital retail platform; Tmall, a third-party online and mobile commerce platform; Alimama, a monetization platform; 1688.com and Alibaba.com, which are online wholesale marketplaces; AliExpress, a retail marketplace; Lazada, Trendyol, and Daraz that are e-commerce platforms; Freshippo, a retail platform for groceries and fresh goods; and Tmall Global, an import e-commerce platform. The company also operates Cainiao Network logistic services platform; Ele.me, an on-demand delivery and local services platform; Koubei, a restaurant and local services guide platform; and Fliggy, an online travel platform. In addition, it offers pay-for-performance, in-feed, and display marketing services; and Taobao Ad Network and Exchange, a real-time online bidding marketing exchange. Further, the company provides elastic computing, storage, network, security, database, big data, and IoT services; and hardware, software license, software installation, and application development and maintenance services. Additionally, it operates Youku, an online video platform; Quark, a platform for information search, storage, and consumption; Alibaba Pictures and other content platforms that provide online videos, films, live events, news feeds, literature, music, and others; Amap, a mobile digital map, navigation, and real-time traffic information app; DingTalk, a business efficiency mobile app; and Tmall Genie smart speaker. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Hangzhou, the People's Republic of China.

About ARTISTdirect

ARTISTdirect, Inc. operates an online platform that provides music and recorded labels. It offers multi-media content, music news and information, online fan communities, music related commerce, and digital music services. The company also provides iMusic record labels of rock and urban music. ARTISTdirect, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is based in Santa Monica, California.