Head to Head Review: Flywire (NASDAQ:FLYW) and CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP)

CoStar Group (NASDAQ:CSGP) and Flywire (NASDAQ:FLYW) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CoStar Group	$2.74 billion	11.80	$374.70 million	$0.35	224.94
Flywire	$492.14 million	2.65	-$8.57 million	$0.02	527.00

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

Volatility & Risk

CoStar Group has a beta of 0.93, meaning that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Flywire has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.6% of CoStar Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.9% of Flywire shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.6% of CoStar Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.9% of Flywire 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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for CoStar Group and Flywire, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CoStar Group	1	4	12	0	2.65
Flywire	0	10	5	0	2.33

CoStar Group presently has a consensus target price of $88.07, indicating a potential upside of 11.87%. Flywire has a consensus target price of $19.23, indicating a potential upside of 82.46%. Given Flywire’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Flywire is more favorable than CoStar Group.

Profitability

This table compares CoStar Group and Flywire’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CoStar Group	5.07%	3.11%	2.54%
Flywire	4.23%	2.49%	1.86%

Summary

CoStar Group beats Flywire on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CoStar Group

CoStar Group, Inc. provides information, analytics, and online marketplace services to the commercial real estate, hospitality, residential, and related professionals industries in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The company offers CoStar Property that provides inventory of office, industrial, retail, multifamily, hospitality, and student housing properties and land; CoStar Sales, a robust database of comparable commercial real estate sales transactions; CoStar Market Analytics to view and report on aggregated market and submarket trends; and CoStar Tenant, an online business-to-business prospecting and analytical tool that provides tenant information. It also provides Leasing, a tool to capture, manage, and maintain lease data; CoStar Lease Analysis; Public Record, a searchable database of commercially zoned parcels; CoStar Real Estate Manager, a real estate lease administration, portfolio management, and lease accounting compliance software solution; and CoStar Risk Analytics and CoStar Investment. In addition, it offers apartment marketing sites, such as ApartmentFinder.com, ForRent.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, WestsideRentals.com, AFTER55.com, CorporateHousing.com, ForRentUniversity.com, Apartamentos.com, and Off Campus Partners; LoopNet Premium Lister; LoopNet Diamond, Platinum, and Gold Ads; LandsofAmerica.com, LandAndFarm.com, and LandWatch.com for rural land for-sale; BizBuySell.com, BizQuest.com, and FindaFranchise.com for operating businesses and franchises for-sale; Ten-X, an online auction platform for commercial real estate; and HomeSnap, an online and mobile software platform, as well as Homes.com, a homes for sale listings site. The company was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.

About Flywire

Flywire Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a payments enablement and software company in the United States and internationally. Its payment platform and network, and vertical-specific software help clients to get paid and help their customers to pay. The company’s platform facilitates payment flows across multiple currencies, payment types, and payment options, as well as provides direct connections to alternative payment methods, such as Alipay, Boleto, PayPal/Venmo, and Trustly. It serves education, healthcare, travel, and business to business organizations. The company was formerly known as peerTransfer Corporation and changed its name to Flywire Corporation in December 2016. Flywire Corporation was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.