Head to Head Survey: PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) and Edgio (NASDAQ:EGIO)

Edgio (NASDAQ:EGIO) and PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Edgio and PayPal, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Edgio	0	1	0	0	2.00
PayPal	0	17	19	1	2.57

Edgio currently has a consensus target price of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 19.19%. PayPal has a consensus target price of $75.56, indicating a potential upside of 5.11%. Given Edgio’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Edgio is more favorable than PayPal.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

23.2% of Edgio shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.3% of PayPal shares are held by institutional investors. 2.6% of Edgio shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of PayPal shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Edgio has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PayPal has a beta of 1.42, suggesting that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Edgio and PayPal’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Edgio	N/A	N/A	N/A
PayPal	14.30%	22.82%	5.75%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Edgio and PayPal’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Edgio	$403.59 million	0.12	-$136.52 million	($25.60)	-0.33
PayPal	$29.77 billion	2.47	$4.25 billion	$3.97	18.11

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

Summary

PayPal beats Edgio on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Edgio

Edgio, Inc. provides edge-enabled software solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates private global networks with distributed computing resources and extensive connectivity to last-mile broadband network providers; offers live and on-demand video delivery services; and provides platform, media, and application solutions. It also offers cloud security, edge compute, origin storage, and support services. In addition, the company provides content delivery, video content management, and streaming services, performance services for website and web application and security; professional services, cloud storage, and edge computing services. The company was formerly known as Limelight Networks, Inc. and changed its name to Edgio, Inc. in June 2022. Edgio, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

About PayPal

PayPal Holdings, Inc. operates a technology platform that enables digital payments on behalf of merchants and consumers worldwide. It operates a two-sided network at scale that connects merchants and consumers that enables its customers to connect, transact, and send and receive payments through online and in person, as well as transfer and withdraw funds using various funding sources, such as bank accounts, PayPal or Venmo account balance, PayPal and Venmo branded credit products comprising its installment products, credit and debit cards, and cryptocurrencies, as well as other stored value products, including gift cards and eligible rewards. The company provides payment solutions under the PayPal, PayPal Credit, Braintree, Venmo, Xoom, Zettle, Hyperwallet, Honey, and Paidy names. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.