Head-To-Head Analysis: Square Enix (OTCMKTS:SQNXF) versus Marchex (NASDAQ:MCHX)

Marchex (NASDAQ:MCHX) and Square Enix (OTCMKTS:SQNXF) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

73.5% of Marchex shares are held by institutional investors. 23.5% of Marchex shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Marchex has a beta of 2.05, meaning that its stock price is 105% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Square Enix has a beta of 0.5, meaning that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Marchex and Square Enix, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Marchex	1	1	0	0	1.50
Square Enix	2	0	0	0	1.00

Profitability

This table compares Marchex and Square Enix’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Marchex	-10.38%	-13.57%	-10.40%
Square Enix	5.92%	5.88%	4.72%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Marchex and Square Enix”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Marchex	$48.12 million	1.30	-$4.95 million	($0.11)	-12.91
Square Enix	$2.13 billion	2.67	$161.13 million	$0.67	23.54

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

Summary

Square Enix beats Marchex on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Marchex

Marchex, Inc., a conversation intelligence company, provides conversational analytics and related solutions in the United States, Canada, and internationally. Its products include Marketing Edge that identifies which campaigns and channels are driving inbound conversations, evaluates what happens during those conversations, and closes the sales loop by connecting converted sales to marketing driven leads; Sonar Business Text Messaging, an artificial intelligence (AI) empowered intelligent workflow enabled mobile messaging solution that enables operations, sales, and marketing teams to communicate personally with field staff, prospects, and customers; Marchex Platform Services, a robust API-based conversation intelligence product that allows executives, sales, customer engagement, and marketing teams to apply Marchex AI to most any calls, regardless of communication platform, in order to identify actionable insights from conversations with their customers; Spotlight, an AI conversation analytics product for multi-location businesses; and Engage, a solution that provides locations with applications to enhance their overall performance. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Square Enix

Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. operates in the content and service businesses in Japan and internationally. It operates through Digital Entertainment Business, Amusement Business, Publishing Business, and Rights Property Business. The company plans, develops, sells, and manages digital entertainment content primarily in the form of computer games. It is also involved in the operation of amusement facilities; and planning, development, manufacture, sale, and rental of arcade game machines and related products for amusement facilities. In addition, the company publishes and licenses comic books, magazines, game-related books, periodicals, etc. Further, it plans, produces, distributes, and licenses secondary works; and offers content under the SQUARE ENIX PRODUCTS brand; and stuffed toys and utility goods under the SQEX TOYS brand. The company was incorporated in 1975 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.