Head to Head Contrast: Great Elm Group (NASDAQ:GEG) and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Great Elm Group (NASDAQ:GEG) and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) are both multi-sector conglomerates companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

52.8% of Great Elm Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.8% of Adobe shares are owned by institutional investors. 51.8% of Great Elm Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Adobe shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Great Elm Group and Adobe”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Great Elm Group	$19.20 million	2.84	-$1.39 million	($0.07)	-27.86
Adobe	$22.04 billion	7.41	$5.56 billion	$15.18	25.25

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

Risk and Volatility

Great Elm Group has a beta of 0.81, indicating that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Adobe has a beta of 1.55, indicating that its stock price is 55% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Great Elm Group and Adobe, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Great Elm Group	0	0	0	0	0.00
Adobe	0	11	16	1	2.64

Adobe has a consensus price target of $502.88, suggesting a potential upside of 31.21%. Given Adobe’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Adobe is more favorable than Great Elm Group.

Profitability

This table compares Great Elm Group and Adobe’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Great Elm Group	0.71%	0.19%	0.10%
Adobe	25.85%	45.87%	22.76%

Summary

Adobe beats Great Elm Group on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Great Elm Group

Great Elm Group, Inc. operates as a asset management company. The company engages in credit, real estate, and finance businesses. It is also involved in business development related activities and offers investment management services. The company was formerly known as Great Elm Capital Group, Inc. and changed its name to Great Elm Group, Inc. in December 2020. Great Elm Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

About Adobe

Adobe Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified software company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Digital Media, Digital Experience, and Publishing and Advertising. The Digital Media segment offers products, services, and solutions that enable individuals, teams, and enterprises to create, publish, and promote content; and Document Cloud, a unified cloud-based document services platform. Its flagship product is Creative Cloud, a subscription service that allows members to access its creative products. This segment serves content creators, students, workers, marketers, educators, enthusiasts, and communicators. The Digital Experience segment provides an integrated platform and set of applications and services that enable brands and businesses to create, manage, execute, measure, monetize, and optimize customer experiences from analytics to commerce. This segment serves marketers, advertisers, agencies, publishers, merchandisers, merchants, web analysts, data scientists, developers, and executives across the C-suite. The Publishing and Advertising segment offers products and services, such as e-learning solutions, technical document publishing, web conferencing, document and forms platform, web application development, and high-end printing, as well as Advertising Cloud offerings. It also provides consulting, technical support, and learning services. The company offers its products and services directly to enterprise customers through its sales force and local field offices, as well as to end users through app stores and through its website at adobe.com. It also distributes products and services through distributors, value-added resellers, systems integrators, software vendors and developers, retailers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Adobe Systems Incorporated and changed its name to Adobe Inc. in October 2018. Adobe Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.