Financial Review: Gannett (NYSE:GCI) versus CTRL Group (NASDAQ:MCTR)

Gannett (NYSE:GCI) and CTRL Group (NASDAQ:MCTR) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, profitability, valuation and risk.

Valuation and Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gannett	$2.51 billion	0.25	-$26.35 million	$0.34	12.34
CTRL Group	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

CTRL Group has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Gannett.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

76.7% of Gannett shares are held by institutional investors. 4.2% of Gannett shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Gannett and CTRL Group, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gannett	0	0	1	0	3.00
CTRL Group	0	0	0	0	0.00

Gannett currently has a consensus target price of $6.00, indicating a potential upside of 43.03%. Given Gannett’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Gannett is more favorable than CTRL Group.

Profitability

This table compares Gannett and CTRL Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gannett	4.84%	53.24%	5.14%
CTRL Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Gannett beats CTRL Group on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gannett

Gannett Co., Inc. operates as a media and marketing solutions company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Domestic Gannett Media, Newsquest, and Digital Marketing Solutions. The company's print offerings includes home delivery on a subscription basis; single copy; non-daily publications, such as shoppers and niche publications. It also provides digital-only subscription, including local media brands, USA TODAY NETWORK community events platform, magazines, sports, and games; and E-newspapers; and digital advertising and marketing services. In addition, the company offers digital news and media brands; daily and weekly newspapers; digital marketing solutions, such as online presence solutions, online advertising products, conversion software, and cloud-based software solutions; commercial printing and distribution services; and prints commercial materials, including flyers, business cards, and invitations. The company was formerly known as New Media Investment Group Inc. and changed its name to Gannett Co., Inc. in November 2019. Gannett Co., Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.

About CTRL Group

Ctrl Group Ltd. is a holding company, which engages in the provision of marketing and advertising services. It offers one-stop advertising services to clients throughout the entire advertising process, which comprises the planning, creating, launching, managing, and performance monitoring of the advertisements. The company was founded by Kai Kwan Lam, Chi Fung Lau, and Chun Pong Siu on May 13, 2022 and is headquartered in Hong Kong.