Reviewing Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) & Salon Media Group (OTCMKTS:SLNM)

Shutterstock (NYSE:SSTK) and Salon Media Group (OTCMKTS:SLNM) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Shutterstock and Salon Media Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shutterstock	1	1	1	0	2.00
Salon Media Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Shutterstock presently has a consensus price target of $7.00, suggesting a potential upside of 30.84%. Given Shutterstock’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Shutterstock is more favorable than Salon Media Group.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

82.8% of Shutterstock shares are owned by institutional investors. 32.3% of Shutterstock shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 52.6% of Salon Media Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Shutterstock and Salon Media Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shutterstock	$989.92 million	0.20	$45.50 million	($0.58)	-9.22
Salon Media Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Shutterstock has higher revenue and earnings than Salon Media Group.

Profitability

This table compares Shutterstock and Salon Media Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shutterstock	-2.19%	14.12%	5.98%
Salon Media Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Shutterstock beats Salon Media Group on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shutterstock

Shutterstock, Inc. provides platform to connect brands and businesses to high quality content in North America, Europe, and internationally. The company offers image services consisting of photographs, vectors, and illustrations, which is used in visual communications, such as websites, digital and print marketing materials, corporate communications, books, publications, and others; footage services, including video clips, filmed by industry experts and cinema grade video effects in HD and 4K formats that are integrated into websites, social media, marketing campaigns, and cinematic productions; and music services comprising music tracks and sound effects, which are used to complement images and footage. It also provides 3 dimensional models consisting of 3D models used in various industries, such as advertising, media and video production, gaming, retail, education, design, and architecture; and generative AI content comprising images generated from algorithms trained with ethically sourced content. The company offers its services under the Shutterstock, Pond5, TurboSquid, PicMonkey, PremiumBeat, Splash News, Bigstock, and Offset brand names. In addition, it operates a collection of graphics interchange format visuals and stickers that supplies casual conversational content. The company serves corporate professionals and organizations, media and broadcast companies, and small and medium-sized businesses, and individual creators through digital, live sales, and client management channels. Shutterstock, Inc. was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Salon Media Group

Salon.com, LLC, an Internet media company, operates an online news Website in the United States. It produces a content Website with various subject-specific sections. The company's Salon.com Website features various voices and perspectives; and covers a range of topics, including news, politics, race, religion, culture, entertainment, sustainability, economy and innovation, technology, and business, as well as food, and health and science. Salon.com, LLC was founded in 1995 and is based in San Francisco, California. As of November 8, 2023, Salon.com, LLC operates as a subsidiary of Find.co.