Analyzing AdTheorent (NASDAQ:ADTH) and GDS (NASDAQ:GDS)

AdTheorent (NASDAQ:ADTH) and GDS (NASDAQ:GDS) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

37.7% of AdTheorent shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 33.7% of GDS shares are owned by institutional investors. 7.1% of AdTheorent shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.0% of GDS shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares AdTheorent and GDS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AdTheorent	-2.67%	0.77%	0.64%
GDS	-41.33%	-8.70%	-2.35%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for AdTheorent and GDS, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AdTheorent	0	3	1	0	2.25
GDS	0	1	2	0	2.67

AdTheorent currently has a consensus price target of $4.69, suggesting a potential upside of 46.48%. GDS has a consensus price target of $12.92, suggesting a potential upside of 6.05%. Given AdTheorent’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe AdTheorent is more favorable than GDS.

Risk & Volatility

AdTheorent has a beta of 1.18, indicating that its share price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, GDS has a beta of 0.21, indicating that its share price is 79% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AdTheorent and GDS’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AdTheorent	$170.81 million	1.72	$10,000.00	($0.06)	-53.32
GDS	$1.40 billion	1.66	-$606.18 million	($3.21)	-3.79

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

Summary

AdTheorent beats GDS on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AdTheorent

AdTheorent Holding Company, Inc., a digital media platform, provides programmatic digital advertising services for advertising agency and brand customers in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It uses machine learning and advanced data science to organize, analyze, and operationalize non-sensitive data to deliver real-world value for customers. The company offers predictive targeting solutions across various customer industry verticals and consumer screens, including customized targeting, measurement, and analytical services; and location-based targeting and geo-intelligence solutions. AdTheorent Holding Company, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About GDS

GDS Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, develops and operates data centers in the People's Republic of China. The company provides colocation services comprising critical facilities space, customer-available power, racks, and cooling; managed hosting services, including business continuity and disaster recovery, network management, data storage, system security, operating system, database, and server middleware services; managed cloud services; and consulting services. It serves cloud service providers, large Internet companies, financial institutions, telecommunications and IT service providers, and large domestic private sector and multinational corporations. GDS Holdings Limited was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.