Financial Analysis: Cinemark (NYSE:CNK) versus Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP)

Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP) and Cinemark (NYSE:CNK) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings and dividends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sound Group and Cinemark”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sound Group	$443.69 million	0.08	$32.39 million	($1.51)	-7.35
Cinemark	$3.12 billion	1.38	$138.20 million	$1.69	21.89

Cinemark has higher revenue and earnings than Sound Group. Sound Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cinemark, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Sound Group and Cinemark’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sound Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cinemark	6.44%	50.94%	4.88%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Sound Group and Cinemark, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sound Group	0	1	0	0	2.00
Cinemark	0	6	9	0	2.60

Cinemark has a consensus price target of $37.93, indicating a potential upside of 2.51%. Given Cinemark’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cinemark is more favorable than Sound Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

1.6% of Sound Group shares are held by institutional investors. 25.2% of Sound Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.4% of Cinemark shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk & Volatility

Sound Group has a beta of 2.44, suggesting that its stock price is 144% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cinemark has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its stock price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Cinemark beats Sound Group on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sound Group

Sound Group Inc. operates as an audio-centric social and entertainment company. It focuses on building audio platform to connect and communicate. The company, through its product portfolio and in-house technologies, caters to user interest in audio entertainment and social networking. The company was formerly known as LIZHI INC. and changed its name to Sound Group Inc. in January 2024. Sound Group Inc. was founded in 2010 and is based in Singapore.

About Cinemark

Cinemark Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the motion picture exhibition business. As of February 16, 2024, it operated 501 theatres with 5,719 screens in 42 states and 13 countries in South and Central America. Cinemark Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.