Reviewing Internet Initiative Japan (OTCMKTS:IIJIY) & BuzzFeed (NASDAQ:BZFD)

BuzzFeed (NASDAQ:BZFD) and Internet Initiative Japan (OTCMKTS:IIJIY) are both communication services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

BuzzFeed has a beta of 3.78, indicating that its share price is 278% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Internet Initiative Japan has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

37.6% of BuzzFeed shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.6% of BuzzFeed shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 6.7% of Internet Initiative Japan shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for BuzzFeed and Internet Initiative Japan, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BuzzFeed	1	1	0	0	1.50
Internet Initiative Japan	0	1	0	0	2.00

BuzzFeed presently has a consensus price target of $1.00, indicating a potential downside of 11.43%. Given BuzzFeed’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe BuzzFeed is more favorable than Internet Initiative Japan.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares BuzzFeed and Internet Initiative Japan”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BuzzFeed	$185.27 million	0.51	-$57.72 million	($1.54)	-0.73
Internet Initiative Japan	$2.29 billion	1.73	$159.64 million	$1.82	23.78

Internet Initiative Japan has higher revenue and earnings than BuzzFeed. BuzzFeed is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Internet Initiative Japan, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares BuzzFeed and Internet Initiative Japan’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BuzzFeed	-35.83%	-113.86%	-34.00%
Internet Initiative Japan	6.79%	15.74%	7.15%

Summary

Internet Initiative Japan beats BuzzFeed on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed, Inc., a digital media company, distributes content across owned and operated, as well as third-party platforms. The company offers BuzzFeed, a go-to authority for entertainment, pop culture, and Internet with articles, lists, quizzes, videos, and original series; BuzzFeed News, a pocket friendly newsroom; Tasty, a platform for food content; HuffPost, media platform for news, politics, opinion, entertainment, features, and lifestyle content. It also provides display, programmatic, and video advertising on its owned and operated sites and applications. BuzzFeed, Inc. is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Internet Initiative Japan

Internet Initiative Japan Inc. provides Internet connectivity, WAN, outsourcing, systems integration, and network-related equipment sales services in Japan. It operates through two segments, Network Services and Systems Integration Business, and ATM Operation Business. The company offers mobile communication and remote access/telework services; WAN/network services, including SDN, multi-cloud network, closed connection, internet VPN, SEIL, remote access, wireless LAN, and GIGA-school; leased line and broadband services; IIJ DNS platform, and domain name registration and maintenance services; IIJ access ID management, dial-up access, and IIJ IPv6 fiber access services; and security solutions for IIJ managed firewall, DDoS protection, and managed IPS/IDS services. It also provides cloud solutions, such as HaaS/IaaS, cloud storage, monitoring/operation, virtual desktop, Paas/Saas, solution for Microsoft and AWS, IoT/M2M, ID management and authentication, network, global, mobile, license, and specialized solutions, as well as IIJ cloud exchange and IIJ cloud integration solutions; integrated, network, mail, and web security, endpoint, security assessment/consulting, web and mail hosting, online storage, content delivery/CDN/CMS, and system integration; IoT services and solutions in the field of industrial, agriculture, energy, and IoT-oriented mobile communication; industry-specific solution; content delivery; and global/privacy products. In addition, the company offers IT outsourcing, IIJ consulting, cognitive factory, IIJ PC deployment support, IIJ PaaS solution, IIJ EMM utilization support, IIJ private cloud, network solutions, IIJ security audit, IIJ malware analysis, IIJ content management, cloud integration solution for Microsoft and AWS, Microsoft 365 transition support solution, data center service, and data center construction engineering solutions, as well as DX edge services. The company was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.