Bridgeline Digital (NASDAQ:BLIN) vs. TrueCar (NASDAQ:TRUE) Head-To-Head Survey

Bridgeline Digital (NASDAQ:BLIN) and TrueCar (NASDAQ:TRUE) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Bridgeline Digital and TrueCar, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bridgeline Digital	1	1	1	0	2.00
TrueCar	1	4	0	0	1.80

Bridgeline Digital presently has a consensus price target of $4.62, indicating a potential upside of 391.49%. TrueCar has a consensus price target of $2.55, indicating a potential upside of 0.39%. Given Bridgeline Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Bridgeline Digital is more favorable than TrueCar.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

15.1% of Bridgeline Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.4% of TrueCar shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.5% of Bridgeline Digital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of TrueCar shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Bridgeline Digital and TrueCar”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bridgeline Digital	$15.38 million	0.77	-$2.52 million	($0.15)	-6.27
TrueCar	$181.22 million	1.25	-$31.05 million	($0.22)	-11.55

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

Volatility and Risk

Bridgeline Digital has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its share price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, TrueCar has a beta of 2.22, suggesting that its share price is 122% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bridgeline Digital	-10.75%	-17.46%	-10.69%
TrueCar	-10.27%	-23.76%	-18.02%

Summary

Bridgeline Digital beats TrueCar on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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 TrueCar

TrueCar, Inc. operates as an internet-based information, technology, and communication services company in the United States. It operates its platform on the TrueCar website and mobile applications. Its platform enables users to obtain market-based pricing data on new and used cars, and to connect with its network of TrueCar certified dealers. The company also offers forecast and consulting services regarding determination of the residual value of an automobile at given future points in time, which are used to underwrite automotive loans and leases, and by financial institutions to measure exposure and risk across loan, lease, and fleet portfolios. In addition, it provides TrueCar Trade, which gives consumers information on the value of their trade-in vehicles and enables them to obtain a guaranteed trade-in price before setting foot in the dealership; and DealerScience that provides dealers with advanced digital retailing software tools. The company was formerly known as Zag.com Inc. The company was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.