Financial Comparison: MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) vs. Exela Technologies (NASDAQ:XELA)

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX) and Exela Technologies (NASDAQ:XELA) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends and institutional ownership.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

64.4% of MediaAlpha shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 16.3% of Exela Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 11.5% of MediaAlpha shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Exela Technologies shares are held 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 MediaAlpha and Exela Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MediaAlpha	1.41%	-11.98%	5.19%
Exela Technologies	-4.87%	N/A	-8.48%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for MediaAlpha and Exela Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MediaAlpha	0	1	6	0	2.86
Exela Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00

MediaAlpha currently has a consensus price target of $21.57, suggesting a potential upside of 89.22%. Given MediaAlpha’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe MediaAlpha is more favorable than Exela Technologies.

Risk & Volatility

MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exela Technologies has a beta of 1.79, suggesting that its stock price is 79% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MediaAlpha and Exela Technologies”s gross 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
Exela Technologies	$1.06 billion	0.00	-$125.16 million	($8.57)	-0.07

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

Summary

MediaAlpha beats Exela Technologies on 11 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 Exela Technologies

Exela Technologies, Inc. (Exela), formerly Quinpario Acquisition Corp. 2, is engaged in providing information and transaction processing solutions. The Company’s segments include Information and Transaction Processing Solutions (ITPS), Healthcare Solutions (HS) and Legal & Loss Prevention Services (LLPS). ITPS provides industry solutions for banking and financial services, including lending solutions for mortgages, banking solutions for clearing, anti-money laundering, sanctions, cross-border settlement; property and casualty insurance solutions for enrollments, and communications. The HS segment offerings include integrated accounts payable and accounts receivable, and information management for both the healthcare payer and provider markets. The LLPS segment solutions include processing of legal claims for class action and mass action settlement administrations, involving project management support, notification and collection, analysis, and distribution of settlement funds.