Financial Survey: Tucows (NASDAQ:TCX) and Liberty TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:LTRPA)

Liberty TripAdvisor (NASDAQ:LTRPA) and Tucows (NASDAQ:TCX) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and risk.

Risk and Volatility

Liberty TripAdvisor has a beta of 3.52, suggesting that its stock price is 252% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Tucows has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Liberty TripAdvisor and Tucows’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Liberty TripAdvisor	-17.66%	49.17%	17.88%
Tucows	-29.91%	-490.14%	-11.37%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Liberty TripAdvisor and Tucows’ top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Liberty TripAdvisor	$1.68 billion	0.03	-$285.00 million	($4.16)	-0.15
Tucows	$339.34 million	0.75	-$96.20 million	($9.51)	-2.44

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Liberty TripAdvisor and Tucows, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Liberty TripAdvisor	0	0	0	0	N/A
Tucows	0	0	0	0	N/A

Institutional & Insider Ownership

31.4% of Liberty TripAdvisor shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.6% of Tucows shares are held by institutional investors. 7.4% of Liberty TripAdvisor shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 11.6% of Tucows shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Liberty TripAdvisor beats Tucows on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Liberty TripAdvisor

Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. operates a travel guidance platform that connects people and audiences with travel partners in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Brand Tripadvisor, Viator, and TheFork. It offers an online platform that provides content, travel guidance products and services, and two-sided marketplaces for travelers to discover, generate, and share authentic user-generated content in the form of ratings and reviews for destinations, points-of-interest, experiences, accommodations, restaurants, cruises, and other travel categories, including alternative accommodations, flights, and rental cars. The company provides click-based, display-based, and subscription-based advertising services. In addition, it operates Viator, an online marketplace that includes website, mobile web, and mobile app, which allows travelers to research and book tours, activities, and attractions in travel destinations worldwide; and TheFork, an online restaurant reservations platform that offers information and services for consumers to research and book restaurants. The company markets and sells its services through its own platform channels, online search engines, social media, email, media via public relations, partnerships, and content distribution. Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Englewood, Colorado.

About Tucows

Tucows Inc. provides network access, domain name registration, email, mobile telephony, and other Internet services in North America and Europe. It operates in three segments: Ting, Wavelo and Tucows Domains. The Ting segment provides fiber and fixed wireless internet services. The Wavelo segment offers individual developer tools, subscription, billing management, network orchestration, and provisioning services. This segment also provides billing solutions under Platypus brand. The Tucows Domains segment offers name registration, as well as value added services under OpenSRS, eNom, Ascio, EPAG, and Hover brands. The company was formerly known as Infonautics, Inc. and changed its name to Tucows Inc. in August 2001. Tucows Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.