Financial Comparison: Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) versus B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY)

Copart (NASDAQ:CPRT) and B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ:RILY) are both business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership and dividends.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Copart and B. Riley Financial, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Copart	0	2	1	0	2.33
B. Riley Financial	0	0	0	0	0.00

Copart currently has a consensus price target of $55.50, suggesting a potential upside of 12.61%. Given Copart’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Copart is more favorable than B. Riley Financial.

Volatility & Risk

Copart has a beta of 1.07, meaning that its share price is 7% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, B. Riley Financial has a beta of 1.43, meaning that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.8% of Copart shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.2% of B. Riley Financial shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.7% of Copart shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 32.9% of B. Riley Financial shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Copart and B. Riley Financial’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Copart	32.21%	18.20%	16.36%
B. Riley Financial	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Copart and B. Riley Financial”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Copart	$4.24 billion	11.25	$1.36 billion	$1.52	32.42
B. Riley Financial	$1.65 billion	0.06	-$99.91 million	($27.77)	-0.12

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

Summary

Copart beats B. Riley Financial on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Copart

Copart, Inc. provides online auctions and vehicle remarketing services. It offers a range of services for processing and selling vehicles over the Internet through its Virtual Bidding Third Generation Internet auction-style sales technology on behalf of vehicle sellers, insurance companies, banks and finance companies, charities, and fleet operators and dealers, as well as individual owners. The company’s services include online seller access, salvage estimation, estimating, end-of-life vehicle processing, virtual insured exchange, transportation, vehicle inspection stations, on-demand reporting, motor vehicle regulatory agency processing, flexible vehicle processing programs, buy it now, member network, sales process, and dealer services. Its services also include buying vehicles through CashForCars.com and Copart Direct. The company sells its products principally to licensed vehicle dismantlers, rebuilders, repair licensees, used vehicle dealers, and exporters, as well as to the general public. It operates in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, Finland, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, and Spain. Copart, Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

About B. Riley Financial

B. Riley Financial, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides financial services to corporate, institutional, and high net worth clients in North America, Australia, the Asia Pacific, and Europe. The company operates through six segments: Capital Markets, Wealth Management, Financial Consulting, Auction and Liquidation, Communications, and Consumer. The Capital Markets segments offers investment banking, equity research, institutional sales and trading, securities lending, fund and asset management, direct lending, venture capital, proprietary trading, and investment services; merger and acquisition, restructuring advisory, and recapitalization services; public and private equity offerings; and debt financing solutions. This segment also trades in equity securities. The Wealth Management segment provides wealth management and tax services. The Financial Consulting segment offers bankruptcy restructuring and turnaround management, forensic accounting and litigation support, valuation and appraisal, and real estate services. The Auction and Liquidation Segment provides auction and liquidation services. The Communications segment offers dial-up, mobile broadband and digital subscriber line services under the NetZero and Juno brands; cloud communication services; VoIP cloud-based technology and communication devices and subscription services through magicJack; and mobile phone voice, text, and data services and devices through Marconi Wireless. The Consumer segment sells laptop and computer accessories. The company was formerly known as Great American Group, Inc. and changed its name to B. Riley Financial, Inc. in November 2014. B. Riley Financial, Inc. was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.