Critical Survey: Cleanspark (NASDAQ:CLSK) and Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN)

Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN) and Cleanspark (NASDAQ:CLSK) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Gen Digital and Cleanspark”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gen Digital	$5.00 billion	3.76	$973.00 million	$1.72	18.26
Cleanspark	$679.25 million	5.02	$364.46 million	($3.77)	-3.52

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

81.4% of Gen Digital shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.1% of Cleanspark shares are held by institutional investors. 9.7% of Gen Digital shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Cleanspark shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Gen Digital and Cleanspark’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gen Digital	20.73%	55.93%	8.91%
Cleanspark	-146.90%	-18.63%	-8.15%

Volatility & Risk

Gen Digital has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its stock price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cleanspark has a beta of 3.84, indicating that its stock price is 284% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Gen Digital and Cleanspark, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gen Digital	0	6	1	1	2.38
Cleanspark	1	1	13	1	2.88

Gen Digital currently has a consensus target price of $31.60, suggesting a potential upside of 0.60%. Cleanspark has a consensus target price of $23.88, suggesting a potential upside of 79.99%. Given Cleanspark’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cleanspark is more favorable than Gen Digital.

Summary

Gen Digital beats Cleanspark on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gen Digital

Gen Digital Inc. engages in the provision of cyber safety solutions for consumers in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers security and performance products under Norton, Avast, Avira, AVG, and CCleaner brands that provide real-time protection and maintenance for PCs, Macs, and mobile devices against malware, viruses, adware, and other online threats. It also provides identity protection solutions, including LifeLock Identity Theft Protection, Avast and AVG Secure Identity, Norton Identity Theft Protection, and Dark Web Monitoring for monitoring of credit reports, financial accounts, the dark web, and social media accounts to help safeguard customers’ personal information. In addition, the company offers Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions under Norton, Avast and AVG brands to enhance security and online privacy that allows customers to securely transmit and access private information, such as passwords, bank details, and credit card numbers, when using public Wi-Fi on PCs, Macs, and mobile iOS and Android devices; AntiTrack and Secure Browser products which helps to keep personal information and browsing activity anonymous while browsing online; and Privacy Monitor Assistant and BreachGuard products for removing customers’ data from public data broker sites; and ReputationDefender, a white glove service that helps customers manage all aspects of their personal branding online, including search results, social media sites, and overall web presence. It markets and sells its products and related services through retailers, telecom service providers, hardware original equipment manufacturers, and employee benefit providers, as well as e-commerce platform. The company was formerly known as NortonLifeLock Inc. and changed its name to Gen Digital Inc. in November 2022. Gen Digital Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.

About Cleanspark

CleanSpark, Inc. operates as a bitcoin miner in the Americas. It owns and operates data centers that primarily run on low-carbon power. Its infrastructure supports Bitcoin, a digital commodity and a tool for financial independence and inclusion. The company was formerly known as Stratean Inc. and changed its name to CleanSpark, Inc. in November 2016. CleanSpark, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Henderson, Nevada.