Contrasting MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) and CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ)

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) and CBIZ (NYSE:CBZ) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for MediaAlpha and CBIZ, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MediaAlpha	0	1	6	0	2.86
CBIZ	0	0	1	0	3.00

MediaAlpha currently has a consensus price target of $21.57, suggesting a potential upside of 89.22%. CBIZ has a consensus price target of $86.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.51%. Given MediaAlpha’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe MediaAlpha is more favorable than CBIZ.

Profitability

This table compares MediaAlpha and CBIZ’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MediaAlpha	1.41%	-11.98%	5.19%
CBIZ	7.08%	15.12%	6.16%

Risk and Volatility

MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.12, indicating that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CBIZ has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.4% of CBIZ shares are held by institutional investors. 11.5% of MediaAlpha shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.4% of CBIZ shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares MediaAlpha and CBIZ”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MediaAlpha	$388.15 million	1.96	-$40.42 million	$0.17	67.06
CBIZ	$1.68 billion	2.51	$120.97 million	$2.36	35.55

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

Summary

CBIZ beats MediaAlpha on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MediaAlpha

MediaAlpha, Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates an insurance customer acquisition platform in the United States. It optimizes customer acquisition in various verticals of property and casualty insurance, health insurance, and life insurance. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

About CBIZ

CBIZ, Inc. provides financial, insurance, and advisory services in the United States and Canada. It operates through Financial Services, Benefits and Insurance Services, and National Practices segments. The Financial Services segment offers accounting and tax, financial advisory, valuation, risk and advisory, and government healthcare consulting services. The Benefits and Insurance Services provides employee benefits consulting, payroll/human capital management, property and casualty insurance, and retirement and investment services. The National Practices segment offers information technology managed networking and hardware, and health care consulting services. The company primarily serves small and medium-sized businesses, as well as individuals, governmental entities, and not-for-profit enterprises. CBIZ, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Independence, Ohio.