Head-To-Head Analysis: MediaAlpha (MAX) & The Competition

MediaAlpha (NYSE:MAX – Get Rating) is one of 192 public companies in the “Business services, not elsewhere classified” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare MediaAlpha to similar businesses based on the strength of its risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, valuation and dividends.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.1% of MediaAlpha shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.6% of shares of all “Business services, not elsewhere classified” companies are held by institutional investors. 9.6% of MediaAlpha shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.2% of shares of all “Business services, not elsewhere classified” companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares MediaAlpha and its peers revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
MediaAlpha	$428.10 million	-$57.67 million	-5.35
MediaAlpha Competitors	$4.80 billion	$81.86 million	-19.07

MediaAlpha’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than MediaAlpha. MediaAlpha is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Risk & Volatility

MediaAlpha has a beta of 1.25, suggesting that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MediaAlpha’s peers have a beta of 0.96, suggesting that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MediaAlpha	0	2	3	0	2.60
MediaAlpha Competitors	792	4796	10199	260	2.62

MediaAlpha currently has a consensus price target of $16.75, indicating a potential upside of 120.39%. As a group, “Business services, not elsewhere classified” companies have a potential upside of 24.72%. Given MediaAlpha’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe MediaAlpha is more favorable than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares MediaAlpha and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MediaAlpha	-14.22%	N/A	-19.40%
MediaAlpha Competitors	-40.43%	-168.79%	-6.78%

Summary

MediaAlpha peers beat MediaAlpha on 7 of the 13 factors compared.

MediaAlpha Company Profile

(Get Rating)

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.