Head-To-Head Contrast: PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV) & Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST)

PPDAI Group (NYSE:FINV) and Upstart (NASDAQ:UPST) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, dividends, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

PPDAI Group has a beta of 0.33, meaning that its share price is 67% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Upstart has a beta of 2.26, meaning that its share price is 126% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for PPDAI Group and Upstart, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PPDAI Group	0	1	0	0	2.00
Upstart	2	7	8	0	2.35

Upstart has a consensus price target of $43.93, suggesting a potential upside of 63.14%. Given Upstart’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Upstart is more favorable than PPDAI Group.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

31.1% of PPDAI Group shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.0% of Upstart shares are held by institutional investors. 44.0% of PPDAI Group shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.3% of Upstart shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PPDAI Group and Upstart”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PPDAI Group	$1.94 billion	0.60	$363.56 million	$1.19	4.00
Upstart	$1.04 billion	2.47	$53.60 million	$0.38	70.87

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

Profitability

This table compares PPDAI Group and Upstart’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PPDAI Group	16.58%	14.22%	9.15%
Upstart	4.34%	5.63%	1.49%

About PPDAI Group

FinVolution Group operates in the online consumer finance industry. The company operates a fintech platform that is empowered by borrowers with financial institutions. It operates in China and internationally. The company was formerly known as PPDAI Group Inc. and changed its name to FinVolution Group in November 2019. FinVolution Group was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China.

About Upstart

Upstart Holdings, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) lending platform in the United States. Its platform includes personal loans, automotive retail and refinance loans, home equity lines of credit, and small dollar loans that connects consumer demand for loans to its to bank and credit unions. Upstart Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.