Bridgeline Digital (NASDAQ:BLIN) & Viewtran Group (OTCMKTS:VIEWF) Critical Analysis

Bridgeline Digital (NASDAQ:BLIN) and Viewtran Group (OTCMKTS:VIEWF) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Bridgeline Digital has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Viewtran Group has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Bridgeline Digital and Viewtran Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bridgeline Digital	-16.37%	-25.40%	-15.73%
Viewtran Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Bridgeline Digital and Viewtran Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bridgeline Digital	1	1	1	0	2.00
Viewtran Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Bridgeline Digital currently has a consensus target price of $4.62, suggesting a potential upside of 530.29%. Given Bridgeline Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Bridgeline Digital is more favorable than Viewtran Group.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Bridgeline Digital and Viewtran Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bridgeline Digital	$15.38 million	0.58	-$2.52 million	($0.26)	-2.82
Viewtran Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Viewtran Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Bridgeline Digital.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

15.1% of Bridgeline Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.5% of Bridgeline Digital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 29.2% of Viewtran Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

About Bridgeline Digital

Bridgeline Digital, Inc. operates as a marketing technology company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company offers HawkSearch, a site search, recommendation, and personalization application for marketers, merchandisers, and developers; Celebros Search, a commerce-oriented site search product that provides natural language processing with artificial intelligence; and Woorank, a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) audit tool that generates an instant performance audit of the site's technical, on-page, and off-page SEO. It also provides Bridgeline TruPresence, a web content management and eCommerce platform to support the needs of multi-unit organizations and franchises; Bridgeline Unbound, a technology suite that empower marketers to easily manage their digital experiences and create personalized customer journeys; and OrchestraCMS, a digital experience platform that enables development of custom solutions, third-party integrations, and delivery of digital transformation initiatives on the Salesforce platform. In addition, the company offers digital engagement services comprising digital strategy, web design and web development, usability engineering, information architecture, and SEO, as well as hosting services. It serves vertical markets, such as industrial distributors and wholesalers, franchises and enterprises, manufacturers, eCommerce retailers, health services and life sciences, technology, credit unions and banks, and associations and foundations through its direct sales force. The company was formerly known as Bridgeline Software, Inc. Bridgeline Digital, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is based in Woburn, Massachusetts.

About Viewtran Group

Viewtran Group, Inc. provides supply chain financial services and enterprise solutions for the technology industry in China. It offers software development and technical deployment services; and hardware, software, and technical services. The company was formerly known as Cogo Group, Inc. and changed its name to Viewtran Group, Inc. in November 2013. Viewtran Group, Inc. is based in Shenzhen, China.