Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) vs. Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) Critical Review

Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) and Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.6% of Green Dot shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 12.3% of Cipher Mining shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.1% of Green Dot shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Cipher Mining shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Green Dot and Cipher Mining, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Green Dot	1	2	1	0	2.00
Cipher Mining	0	0	7	2	3.22

Green Dot presently has a consensus price target of $10.75, indicating a potential downside of 4.57%. Cipher Mining has a consensus price target of $7.36, indicating a potential upside of 40.14%. Given Cipher Mining’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cipher Mining is more favorable than Green Dot.

Risk and Volatility

Green Dot has a beta of 0.92, indicating that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cipher Mining has a beta of 2.25, indicating that its share price is 125% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Green Dot and Cipher Mining”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Green Dot	$1.50 billion	0.40	$6.72 million	($1.02)	-11.04
Cipher Mining	$126.84 million	13.88	-$25.78 million	$0.06	87.51

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

Profitability

This table compares Green Dot and Cipher Mining’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Green Dot	-3.41%	4.01%	0.67%
Cipher Mining	11.43%	3.41%	2.98%

Summary

Cipher Mining beats Green Dot on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Green Dot

Green Dot Corporation, a financial technology and registered bank holding company, provides various financial services to consumers and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer Services, Business to Business Services, and Money Movement Services. The company provides deposit account programs, including consumer and small business checking account products, network-branded reloadable prepaid debit cards and gift cards, and secured credit programs. It offers money processing services, such as cash transfer services that enable consumers to deposit or pick up cash and pay bills with cash at the point-of-sale at any participating retailer; and simply paid disbursement services, which enable wages and authorized funds disbursement to its deposit account programs and accounts issued by any third-party bank or program manager. In addition, the company offers tax processing services comprising tax refund transfers, which provide the processing technology to facilitate receipt of a taxpayers' refund proceeds; small business lending to independent tax preparation providers that seek small advances; and fast cash advance, a loan that enables tax refund recipients. Green Dot Corporation was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Cipher Mining

Cipher Mining Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and operation of industrial scale bitcoin mining data centers in the United States. The company was incorporated in 2020 and is based in New York, New York. Cipher Mining Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Bitfury Holding B.V.