BTCS (OTCMKTS:BTCS – Get Free Report) and Applied Digital (OTCMKTS:APLD – Get Free Report) are both small-cap financial services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends and valuation.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
3.5% of BTCS shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.7% of Applied Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.2% of BTCS shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 23.7% of Applied Digital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Risk & Volatility
BTCS has a beta of 1.64, meaning that its stock price is 64% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Digital has a beta of 4.29, meaning that its stock price is 329% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| BTCS | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Applied Digital | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
BTCS presently has a consensus target price of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 100.00%. Applied Digital has a consensus target price of $14.70, suggesting a potential upside of 255.07%. Given Applied Digital’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Applied Digital is more favorable than BTCS.
Profitability
This table compares BTCS and Applied Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| BTCS | -370.07% | -43.20% | -37.26% |
| Applied Digital | -80.60% | -61.59% | -22.75% |
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares BTCS and Applied Digital’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| BTCS | $1.34 million | 17.59 | -$15.89 million | $0.56 | 2.68 |
| Applied Digital | $143.91 million | 3.53 | -$44.65 million | ($0.79) | -5.24 |
BTCS has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Applied Digital. Applied Digital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than BTCS, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Applied Digital beats BTCS on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About BTCS
BTCS Inc. focuses on blockchain infrastructure and staking in the United States. The company secures blockchain-infrastructure operations and operates validator nodes on disruptive next-generation blockchain networks. It offers StakeSeeker, a cryptocurrency dashboard and staking-as-a-service platform that allows crypto asset holders to earn rewards by participating in network consensus mechanisms. The company was formerly known as Bitcoin Shop, Inc. and changed its name to BTCS Inc. in July 2015. BTCS Inc. was founded in 2014 and is based in Silver Spring, Maryland.
About Applied Digital
Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services. The company was formerly known as Applied Blockchain, Inc. and changed its name to Applied Digital Corporation in November 2022. Applied Digital Corporation is based in Dallas, Texas.
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