Critical Review: Benchmark Energy (OTCMKTS:BMRK) & Yext (NYSE:YEXT)

Yext (NYSE:YEXT) and Benchmark Energy (OTCMKTS:BMRK) are both business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

71.0% of Yext shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.4% of Yext shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Yext and Benchmark Energy’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Yext	-4.64%	-11.10%	-3.49%
Benchmark Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Yext and Benchmark Energy, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Yext	0	2	2	0	2.50
Benchmark Energy	0	0	0	0	0.00

Yext currently has a consensus target price of $9.00, suggesting a potential upside of 37.30%. Given Yext’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Yext is more favorable than Benchmark Energy.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Yext and Benchmark Energy”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Yext	$404.32 million	2.07	-$2.63 million	($0.15)	-43.70
Benchmark Energy	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Benchmark Energy has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Yext.

Volatility and Risk

Yext has a beta of 1.26, indicating that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Benchmark Energy has a beta of 3.86, indicating that its share price is 286% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Yext beats Benchmark Energy on 6 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Yext

Yext, Inc. organizes business facts to provide answers to consumer questions in North America and internationally. It operates Yext platform, a cloud-based platform that allows its customers to offer answers to consumer questions, to control the facts about their businesses and the content of their landing pages, and to manage their consumer reviews; and provides customers to update their information and content through its publisher network of maps, apps, search engines, intelligent GPS systems, digital assistants, vertical directories, and social networks, as well as professional services. The company’s platform also enables its customers to centralize, control and manage data fields, including store information comprising name, address, phone number, and holiday hours; professional information, such as headshot, specialties, and education; job information consists of title and description; FAQs and other information. It serves various industries, such as healthcare, hospitality, food services, retail, and financial services. Yext, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Benchmark Energy

Benchmark Energy Corporation, through its subsidiary, Energy Partners LLC, buys industrial grade glycerin and sells it to boiler plants as an alternative bunker fuel in the United States and internationally. The company offers crude and refined glycerin, a co-product of biodiesel production used in various industrial and commercial applications, such as power, energy, and boiler operations, as well as in the de-icing process and manufacturing of animal feed. It has a strategic relationship with the University of North Dakota (UND) to utilize industrial grade glycerin as an additive to the UND coal-burning plant. The company is based in Coldspring, Texas.