Head-To-Head Contrast: VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) vs. Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI)

Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI) and VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Rigetti Computing and VeriSign, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rigetti Computing	0	0	5	0	3.00
VeriSign	0	0	2	1	3.33

Rigetti Computing currently has a consensus price target of $14.00, suggesting a potential upside of 15.13%. VeriSign has a consensus price target of $267.50, suggesting a potential downside of 1.04%. Given Rigetti Computing’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Rigetti Computing is more favorable than VeriSign.

Profitability

This table compares Rigetti Computing and VeriSign’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rigetti Computing	-509.58%	-51.56%	-37.78%
VeriSign	50.47%	-43.01%	51.54%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

35.4% of Rigetti Computing shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.9% of VeriSign shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Rigetti Computing shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of VeriSign shares are held 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Rigetti Computing and VeriSign”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rigetti Computing	$9.21 million	383.31	-$75.11 million	($0.70)	-17.37
VeriSign	$1.58 billion	16.11	$785.70 million	$8.18	33.05

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

Risk & Volatility

Rigetti Computing has a beta of 1.41, suggesting that its share price is 41% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VeriSign has a beta of 0.8, suggesting that its share price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

VeriSign beats Rigetti Computing on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rigetti Computing

Rigetti Computing, Inc., through its subsidiaries, builds quantum computers and the superconducting quantum processors. The company offers cloud in a form of quantum processing unit, such as 9-qubit chip and Ankaa-2 system under the Novera brand name; and sells access to its quantum computers through quantum computing as a service. It also provides quantum cloud services that provides various range of support in programming, public or private clouds integration, and connectivity, as well as quantum operating system software that supports both public and private cloud architectures. In addition, the company offers professional services, such as algorithm development, benchmarking, quantum application programming, and software development. The company serves commercial enterprises, government organizations, and international government entities. It has operations in the United States and the United Kingdom. Rigetti Computing, Inc. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Berkeley, California.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce. It operates directory for .name and .cc; and back-end systems for .edu, domain names. VeriSign, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.