Critical Survey: Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) versus Harte Hanks (NASDAQ:HHS)

Criteo (NASDAQ:CRTO) and Harte Hanks (NASDAQ:HHS) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Criteo and Harte Hanks’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Criteo	5.60%	14.33%	8.05%
Harte Hanks	-3.70%	-30.14%	-6.30%

Volatility and Risk

Criteo has a beta of 0.29, indicating that its share price is 71% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Harte Hanks has a beta of 0.17, indicating that its share price is 83% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

94.3% of Criteo shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.8% of Harte Hanks shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.5% of Criteo shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.6% of Harte Hanks shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Criteo and Harte Hanks, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Criteo	3	3	6	0	2.25
Harte Hanks	1	0	0	0	1.00

Criteo currently has a consensus target price of $22.65, suggesting a potential upside of 50.30%. Given Criteo’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Criteo is more favorable than Harte Hanks.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Criteo and Harte Hanks”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Criteo	$1.94 billion	0.38	$144.60 million	$1.97	7.65
Harte Hanks	$159.57 million	0.20	-$810,000.00	($0.76)	-5.75

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

Summary

Criteo beats Harte Hanks on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Criteo

Criteo S.A., a technology company, provides marketing and monetization services on the open Internet in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company's Criteo Shopper Graph, which derives clients' proprietary commerce data, such as transaction activity on their digital properties. It also offers Criteo AI Engine solutions, including lookalike finder, recommendation, and predictive bidding algorithms; recommendation algorithms, dynamic creative optimization+, sponsored product placement algorithms, and other product placement algorithms. The company's technology comprises data synchronization, storage, and analysis of distributed computing infrastructure in various geographies, as well as fast data collection and retrieval using multi-layered caching infrastructure; and experimentation platform, an offline/online testing platform to enhance the capabilities and effectiveness of prediction models. In addition, it provides Criteo Marketing Solutions that allow commerce companies to address various marketing goals by engaging their consumers with personalized ads across the web, mobile, and offline store environments; and Criteo Retail Media solutions, which allows retailers to generate advertising revenues from consumer brands, and/or to drive sales for themselves, by monetizing their data and audiences through personalized ads, either on their own digital property or on the open Internet. Further, the company offers real-time advertising technology and trading infrastructure, delivering advanced media buying, selling, and packaging capabilities for media owners, agencies, performance advertisers, and third-party AdTech platforms. It serves companies in digital retail, travel, and classifieds sectors. Criteo S.A. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Paris, France.

About Harte Hanks

Harte-Hanks, Inc. engages in the provision of marketing solutions. It specializes in consulting, data analytics, creative services, digital and social media, marketing strategy, marketing technology, and other related services. It supports a range of customers in the field of technology, travel and leisure, entertainment, pharmaceuticals, automotive, finance, and retail. The company was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in San Antonio, TX.