Comparing Hitek Global (NASDAQ:HKIT) & MeridianLink (NYSE:MLNK)

Hitek Global (NASDAQ:HKIT) and MeridianLink (NYSE:MLNK) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Hitek Global has a beta of 1.46, indicating that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MeridianLink has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Hitek Global and MeridianLink, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hitek Global	0	0	0	0	0.00
MeridianLink	3	6	0	0	1.67

MeridianLink has a consensus price target of $20.07, indicating a potential upside of 0.53%. Given MeridianLink’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe MeridianLink is more favorable than Hitek Global.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

1.2% of Hitek Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.7% of MeridianLink shares are owned by institutional investors. 21.3% of MeridianLink shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Hitek Global and MeridianLink’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hitek Global	N/A	N/A	N/A
MeridianLink	-6.90%	-4.50%	-1.95%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Hitek Global and MeridianLink”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hitek Global	$2.90 million	9.35	-$900,000.00	N/A	N/A
MeridianLink	$316.30 million	4.68	-$29.77 million	($0.29)	-68.84

Hitek Global has higher earnings, but lower revenue than MeridianLink.

Summary

Hitek Global beats MeridianLink on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Hitek Global

Hitek Global Inc. provides information technology (IT) consulting and solutions to small and medium businesses in various industry sectors in China. It offers anti-counterfeiting tax control system (ACTCS) tax devices, including golden tax disk and printers, ACTCS services, and IT services; and sells software and hardware to large businesses, such as laptops, printers, desktop computers, and related accessories, as well as Internet servers, cameras, and monitors. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Xiamen, China.

About MeridianLink

MeridianLink, Inc., a software and services company, provides software solutions for banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, specialty lending providers, and consumer reporting agencies in the United States. The company offers MeridianLink One, a multi-product platform that can be tailored to meet the needs of customers as they digitally transform their organizations and adapt to changing business and consumer demands; MeridianLink Portal, a Point of Sale system that allows financial institutions to expand existing lending and deposit account; MeridianLink Opening, a cloud-based online account opening and deposit software solution; MeridianLink Consumer, a full loan solution suite to banks and credit unions; and MeridianLink DecisionLender, a loan origination software (LOS) for finance companies. It also provides MeridianLink Mortgage, a cloud-based software designed for financial professionals to optimize the end-to-end mortgage loan origination process; MeridianLink Collect, a web-based debt collection software; Mortgage Credit Link, a web-based order fulfillment hub; and MeridianLink Business, a cloud-based platform that offers business lending solutions for banks and credit unions. In addition, the company provides analytics and business intelligence tools through MeridianLink Engage, MeridianLink Consulting, MeridianLink Data Connect, and MeridianLink Insight; Data Verification Software Solution, a cloud-based order fulfillment hub for bankers and credit officers; and loan origination systems, other credit decisioning tools, and additional solution modules. MeridianLink, Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California.