Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP) & System1 (NYSE:SST) Head to Head Contrast

Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP) and System1 (NYSE:SST) are both small-cap consumer discretionary companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sound Group and System1’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sound Group	$316.83 million	0.03	$12.54 million	$0.99	2.12
System1	$365.77 million	0.34	-$227.22 million	($2.27)	-0.61

Sound Group has higher earnings, but lower revenue than System1. System1 is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sound Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Sound Group and System1’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sound Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
System1	-49.23%	-42.08%	-12.99%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Sound Group and System1, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sound Group	0	0	0	0	N/A
System1	0	1	1	0	2.50

System1 has a consensus price target of $3.50, suggesting a potential upside of 153.62%. Given System1’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe System1 is more favorable than Sound Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

1.6% of Sound Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of System1 shares are owned by institutional investors. 25.2% of Sound Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 28.3% of System1 shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Sound Group has a beta of 1.67, suggesting that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, System1 has a beta of 1.35, suggesting that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sound Group beats System1 on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sound Group

Sound Group Inc. operates as an audio-centric social and entertainment company. It focuses on building audio platform to connect and communicate. The company, through its product portfolio and in-house technologies, caters to user interest in audio entertainment and social networking. The company was formerly known as LIZHI INC. and changed its name to Sound Group Inc. in January 2024. Sound Group Inc. was founded in 2010 and is based in Singapore.

About System1

System1, Inc. provides omnichannel customer acquisition platform services through its proprietary responsive acquisition marketing platform in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, and internationally. It operates through two segments: Owned and Operated Advertising, and Partner Network. The company engages in the provision of acquiring traffic to its owned and operated websites, as well as revenue-sharing arrangements and related services. It also operates MapQuest, a web-based navigation service that delivers turn-by-turn direction services to users; Info.com, a metasearch engine that consumers can use to search for relevant information; HowStuffWorks, a commercial website focused on helping people solve problems in their daily lives by using various types of digital media to easily breakdown and explain complex concepts, topics, terminology and mechanisms; Startpage, a private search engine that allows users to browse and search the Internet in complete privacy; and CouponFollow for coupon destinations for online shoppers, as well as ActiveBeat and Infospace. In addition, the company provides antivirus software solutions, which offers customers a single packaged solution that provides protection and reporting to the end users. The company is based in Los Angeles, California.