Financial Contrast: Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) and Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) and Veritone (NASDAQ:VERI) are both business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and earnings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Duolingo and Veritone”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Duolingo	$748.02 million	8.62	$88.57 million	$7.89	17.68
Veritone	$92.64 million	3.49	-$37.38 million	($0.67)	-5.25

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

91.6% of Duolingo shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 39.2% of Veritone shares are held by institutional investors. 15.7% of Duolingo shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.0% of Veritone shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Duolingo has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veritone has a beta of 2.03, suggesting that its share price is 103% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Duolingo and Veritone’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Duolingo	40.03%	14.02%	9.15%
Veritone	-42.60%	-361.72%	-20.95%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Duolingo and Veritone, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Duolingo	1	11	12	0	2.46
Veritone	1	1	4	1	2.71

Duolingo currently has a consensus target price of $301.75, indicating a potential upside of 116.35%. Veritone has a consensus target price of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 184.09%. Given Veritone’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Veritone is more favorable than Duolingo.

Summary

Duolingo beats Veritone on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Duolingo

Duolingo, Inc. operates as a mobile learning platform in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers courses in 40 different languages, including Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese through its Duolingo app. It also provides a digital English language proficiency assessment exam. Duolingo, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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.