Madison Square Garden (NYSE:MSGS) and Skillz (NYSE:FIRY) Critical Review

Madison Square Garden (NYSE:MSGS) and Skillz (NYSE:FIRY) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

68.9% of Madison Square Garden shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.4% of Skillz shares are owned by institutional investors. 19.1% of Madison Square Garden shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 59.4% of Skillz shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Madison Square Garden and Skillz”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Madison Square Garden	$1.15 billion	8.32	$7.76 million	$0.30	1,329.12
Skillz	$104.50 million	1.63	-$70.41 million	($4.42)	-2.33

Madison Square Garden has higher revenue and earnings than Skillz. Skillz is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Madison Square Garden, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Madison Square Garden has a beta of 0.6, suggesting that its stock price is 40% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Skillz has a beta of 4.59, suggesting that its stock price is 359% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Madison Square Garden and Skillz, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Madison Square Garden	0	5	4	0	2.44
Skillz	1	0	1	0	2.00

Madison Square Garden presently has a consensus price target of $471.20, suggesting a potential upside of 18.17%. Given Madison Square Garden’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Madison Square Garden is more favorable than Skillz.

Profitability

This table compares Madison Square Garden and Skillz’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Madison Square Garden	0.67%	-3.47%	0.64%
Skillz	-60.23%	-66.50%	-24.36%

Summary

Madison Square Garden beats Skillz on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. operates as a professional sports company in the United States. The company owns and operates a portfolio of assets that consists of the New York Knickerbockers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League. Its other professional franchises include development league teams, the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League and the Westchester Knicks of the NBA G League. The company also owns Knicks Gaming, an esports franchise that competes in the NBA 2K League. In addition, it operates professional sports team performance centers, the Madison Square Garden Training Center in Greenburgh. The company was formerly known as The Madison Square Garden Company. Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. was incorporated in 2015 and is based in New York, New York.

About Skillz

Skillz Inc. operates a mobile games platform that connects players in fair, fun, and meaningful competition. The company primarily develops and supports a proprietary online-hosted technology platform that enables independent game developers to host tournaments and provide competitive gaming activity to end-users worldwide. It also hosts casual esports tournaments to a range of mobile players. The company distributes games through direct app download from its website, as well as through third-party platforms. Skillz Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.