Financial Analysis: HeartCore Enterprises (NASDAQ:HTCR) vs. Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI)

Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) and HeartCore Enterprises (NASDAQ:HTCR) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

39.2% of Veritone shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.7% of HeartCore Enterprises shares are held by institutional investors. 26.4% of Veritone shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 63.1% of HeartCore Enterprises shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Veritone and HeartCore Enterprises, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Veritone	0	2	0	0	2.00
HeartCore Enterprises	0	0	0	0	N/A

Veritone presently has a consensus target price of $3.50, indicating a potential downside of 0.28%. Given Veritone’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Veritone is more favorable than HeartCore Enterprises.

Volatility & Risk

Veritone has a beta of 2.97, indicating that its share price is 197% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HeartCore Enterprises has a beta of 1.62, indicating that its share price is 62% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Veritone and HeartCore Enterprises’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Veritone	$127.56 million	1.02	-$58.62 million	($2.15)	-1.63
HeartCore Enterprises	$21.85 million	0.88	-$4.19 million	($0.19)	-4.84

HeartCore Enterprises has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Veritone. HeartCore Enterprises is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Veritone, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Veritone and HeartCore Enterprises’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Veritone	-42.97%	-120.37%	-12.97%
HeartCore Enterprises	-19.18%	-27.80%	-14.04%

Summary

Veritone beats HeartCore Enterprises on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Veritone

Veritone, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of artificial intelligence (AI) computing solutions and services in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Israel, and India. It develops and operates aiWARE platform, an AI operating system, that uses machine learning algorithms or AI models designed to mimic human cognitive functions, such as perception, prediction, and problem solving and optimization, as well as enables users to transform unstructured data into structured data, and analyze and optimize data to drive business processes and insights. The company also provides media advertising agency services, including media planning and strategy, media buying and placement, campaign messaging, clearance verification and attribution, and custom analytics directly to advertisers through outbound sales networking, and client and partner referrals, as well as indirectly through advertising agencies or marketing consultants. It serves media and entertainment, government, legal and compliance, energy, and other vertical markets. The company was formerly known as Veritone Delaware, Inc. and changed its name to Veritone, Inc. in July 2014. Veritone, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

About HeartCore Enterprises

HeartCore Enterprises, Inc., a software development company, provides Software as a Service solutions to enterprise customers in Japan and internationally. Its customer experience management platform includes marketing, sales, service, and content management systems, as well as other tools and integrations, which enable companies to enhance the customer experience and drive engagement. The company also provides data analytics services that allow enterprise businesses to create web experiences for their clients. In addition, it operates a digital transformation business that provides customers with robotics process automation, process mining, and task mining to accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.