Head to Head Survey: Dalton Industries (OTCMKTS:UMGP) & Fluent (NASDAQ:FLNT)

Fluent (NASDAQ:FLNT) and Dalton Industries (OTCMKTS:UMGP) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and dividends.

Volatility & Risk

Fluent has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Dalton Industries has a beta of 0.66, indicating that its stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Fluent and Dalton Industries, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fluent	0	1	0	0	2.00
Dalton Industries	0	0	0	0	0.00

Fluent presently has a consensus price target of $2.50, suggesting a potential downside of 20.63%. Given Fluent’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Fluent is more favorable than Dalton Industries.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

23.3% of Fluent shares are owned by institutional investors. 43.5% of Fluent shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Fluent and Dalton Industries”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fluent	$254.62 million	0.37	-$29.28 million	($1.15)	-2.74
Dalton Industries	$30,000.00	96.29	-$260,000.00	($0.01)	-7.85

Dalton Industries has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Fluent. Dalton Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fluent, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Fluent and Dalton Industries’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fluent	-12.47%	-109.15%	-29.76%
Dalton Industries	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Fluent beats Dalton Industries on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fluent

Fluent, Inc. provides data-driven digital marketing services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Fluent and All Other segments. It offers customer acquisition services by operating digital marketing campaigns, through which the company connects its advertiser clients with consumers. The company also delivers data and performance-based marketing executions to various consumer brands, direct marketers, and agencies across a range of industries, including financial products and services, media and entertainment, health and life sciences, retail and consumer, and staffing and recruitment. Fluent, Inc. was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Dalton Industries

Universal Media Group Inc., a media company, produces and distributes media content worldwide. It produces On The Mike, a TV show that primarily include celebrity interviews, music concerts, and other events. The company was formerly known as Dalton Industries Inc. and changed its name to Universal Media Group Inc. in January 2016. Universal Media Group Inc. was founded in 1971 and is based in Boca Raton, Florida.