Next (OTCMKTS:NXCLF) versus Fathom (NASDAQ:FTHM) Financial Survey

Next (OTCMKTS:NXCLF) and Fathom (NASDAQ:FTHM) are both small-cap real estate companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Next and Fathom”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Next	$188.62 million	1.07	$35.62 million	$0.12	13.17
Fathom	$420.48 million	0.06	-$20.31 million	($0.74)	-1.04

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Next and Fathom, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Next	0	0	0	0	0.00
Fathom	1	0	0	1	2.50

Fathom has a consensus target price of $2.50, indicating a potential upside of 224.25%. Given Fathom’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Fathom is more favorable than Next.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

55.5% of Fathom shares are held by institutional investors. 16.4% of Fathom shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Next has a beta of -0.15, suggesting that its share price is 115% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fathom has a beta of 2.21, suggesting that its share price is 121% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Next and Fathom’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Next	11.83%	13.29%	8.71%
Fathom	-5.53%	-60.55%	-29.18%

About Next

LIFULL Co.,Ltd. provides real estate information services in Japan and internationally. It offers LIFULL HOME'S, a site of real estate and housing information; LIFULL Revitalize Rural Japan that suggests new lifestyles to people in Japan based on the refurbishment of abandoned houses; LIFULL Move, which provides rankings and reviews of moving companies; LIFULL Nursing Care, a special care facility searching web service; and LIFULL Investment, a money lending website. The company also provides LIFULL FaM that enables working mothers balance childcare with work while pursuing a career; LIFULL Storage, a storage space searching web service; LIFULL HUB, a shared office; LIFULL Fab for design and craftsmanship; and LIFULL Table, a gallery and open space for photography, exhibitions, press releases, and workshops. In addition, it offers LivingAnywhere Commons, a community to live; instant house products; Trovit, an aggregation website providing information on items, including real estate and housing, used cars, recruitment, and mail orders; and Mitula, a site that provides information in real estate and housing, used cars, recruitment, and fashion. The company was formerly known as NEXT Co., Ltd. and changed its name to LIFULL Co.,Ltd. in April 2017. LIFULL Co.,Ltd. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About Fathom

Fathom Holdings Inc. provides a real estate services platform that integrates residential brokerage, mortgage, title, and insurance services in the United States. It operates through three segments: Real Estate Brokerage, Mortgage, and Technology. The Real Estate Brokerage segment provides real estate brokerage services. The Mortgage segment offers residential loan origination and underwriting services. The Technology segment provides Software as a Service solutions and data mining for third party customers. It offers access to various properties for sale or lease through its FathomRealty.com website to buyers, sellers, landlords, and tenants; insurance agency services; and title services. In addition, the company provides intelliAgent, a real estate technology platform that offers a suite of brokerage and agent level tools, technology, business processes, business intelligence and reporting, and training; transaction, personnel, customer relationship, and accounting management for agent transactions; and reporting, social media marketing, and other marketing and marketing repository services, as well as marketplace for add-on services and third-party technology. Its brands include Fathom Realty, Dagley Insurance, Encompass Lending, intelliAgent, LiveBy, Real Results, Verus Title, and Cornerstone. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina.