Analyzing StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) and Solana (NASDAQ:HSDT)

Solana (NASDAQ:HSDT) and StoneCo (NASDAQ:STNE) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and earnings.

Risk & Volatility

Solana has a beta of 1.06, meaning that its stock price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, StoneCo has a beta of 1.75, meaning that its stock price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Solana and StoneCo, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Solana	1	1	3	0	2.40
StoneCo	0	6	4	0	2.40

Solana presently has a consensus target price of $3.75, suggesting a potential upside of 68.92%. StoneCo has a consensus target price of $14.30, suggesting a potential upside of 41.58%. Given Solana’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Solana is more favorable than StoneCo.

Earnings & Valuation

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Solana	$6.02 million	22.30	-$40.89 million	($30.32)	-0.07
StoneCo	$2.53 billion	0.99	$425.73 million	$2.48	4.07

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

18.6% of Solana shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 73.2% of StoneCo shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.4% of Solana shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 11.3% of StoneCo shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Solana and StoneCo’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Solana	-1,302.78%	-41.86%	-18.53%
StoneCo	22.92%	22.19%	4.10%

Summary

StoneCo beats Solana on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Solana

Helius Medical Technologies, Inc., a neurotechnology company, focuses on developing, licensing, and acquiring non-implantable technologies for the treatment of symptoms caused by neurological disease or trauma. The company's product is Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator, a non-surgical medical device intended for use as a short term treatment of gait deficit due to symptoms from multiple sclerosis and balance deficit due to mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury, as well as to be used in conjunction with supervised therapeutic exercise. The company was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania.

About StoneCo

StoneCo Ltd. provides financial technology and software solutions to merchants and integrated partners to conduct electronic commerce across in-store, online, and mobile channels in Brazil. It distributes its solutions, principally through proprietary Stone Hubs, which offer hyper-local sales and services; and sells solutions to brick-and-mortar and digital merchants through sales team. The company served small-and-medium-sized businesses; and marketplaces, e-commerce platforms, and integrated software vendors. StoneCo Ltd. was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in George Town, the Cayman Islands.