Comparing NIQ Global Intelligence (NYSE:NIQ) and Cardlytics (NASDAQ:CDLX)

NIQ Global Intelligence (NYSE:NIQ) and Cardlytics (NASDAQ:CDLX) are both communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for NIQ Global Intelligence and Cardlytics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NIQ Global Intelligence	1	3	12	0	2.69
Cardlytics	2	2	0	0	1.50

NIQ Global Intelligence currently has a consensus target price of $17.58, indicating a potential upside of 57.09%. Cardlytics has a consensus target price of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 167.38%. Given Cardlytics’ higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cardlytics is more favorable than NIQ Global Intelligence.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares NIQ Global Intelligence and Cardlytics”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
NIQ Global Intelligence	$4.20 billion	0.79	-$353.30 million	($1.26)	-8.88
Cardlytics	$211.16 million	0.10	-$103.49 million	($17.70)	-0.21

Cardlytics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than NIQ Global Intelligence. NIQ Global Intelligence is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cardlytics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares NIQ Global Intelligence and Cardlytics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NIQ Global Intelligence	-7.78%	10.30%	1.52%
Cardlytics	-46.03%	-956.56%	-34.57%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

68.1% of Cardlytics shares are held by institutional investors. 3.8% of NIQ Global Intelligence shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.9% of Cardlytics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

NIQ Global Intelligence beats Cardlytics on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About NIQ Global Intelligence

Nuveen Intermediate Duration Quality Municipal Term Fund is a close ended fixed income mutual fund launched by Nuveen Investments Inc. The fund is co-managed by Nuveen Fund Advisors LLC and Nuveen Asset Management, LLC. It invests into public fixed income markets of the United States. The fund seeks to invest in stocks of companies that are operating across diversified sectors. It primarily invests in municipal securities that are exempt from federal income taxes, and seeks to maintain a portfolio with an intermediate effective duration of between 3 and 10 years, including the effects of leverage. The fund invests at least 80% of its managed assets in municipal securities rated investment grade i.e. Baa/BBB or at the time of investment. It employs fundamental analysis, with focus on bottom-up approach to create its portfolio. The fund benchmarks the performance of its portfolio against the S&P Municipal Bond Intermediate Index and a composite index comprising 50% of S&P Municipal Bond Intermediate Index and 50% of the S&P Municipal Bond High Yield Index. Nuveen Intermediate Duration Quality Municipal Term Fund was founded on February 7,2012 and is domiciled in the United States.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics, Inc. operates an advertising platform in the United States and the United Kingdom. It offers Cardlytics platform, a proprietary native bank advertising channel that enables marketers to reach customers through their network of financial institution partners through digital channels, such as online, mobile applications, email, and various real-time notifications; and Bridg platform, a customer data platform which utilizes point-of-sale data and enables marketers to perform analytics and targeted loyalty marketing, as well as measure the impact of their marketing. The company was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.