Critical Survey: Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) versus Clarivate (NYSE:CLVT)

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) and Clarivate (NYSE:CLVT) are both finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Applied Digital has a beta of 4.78, indicating that its stock price is 378% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Clarivate has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

65.7% of Applied Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.7% of Clarivate shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.8% of Applied Digital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.1% of Clarivate shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Applied Digital and Clarivate’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Applied Digital	-127.86%	-117.67%	-27.84%
Clarivate	-50.00%	9.69%	3.97%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Applied Digital and Clarivate, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Applied Digital	0	0	9	0	3.00
Clarivate	1	3	2	0	2.17

Applied Digital presently has a consensus price target of $12.11, suggesting a potential upside of 49.52%. Clarivate has a consensus price target of $7.10, suggesting a potential upside of 37.20%. Given Applied Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Applied Digital is more favorable than Clarivate.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Applied Digital and Clarivate”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Applied Digital	$165.57 million	10.90	-$149.27 million	($1.73)	-4.68
Clarivate	$2.63 billion	1.40	-$911.20 million	($1.99)	-2.60

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

About Applied Digital

Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services. The company was formerly known as Applied Blockchain, Inc. and changed its name to Applied Digital Corporation in November 2022. Applied Digital Corporation is based in Dallas, Texas.

About Clarivate

Clarivate Plc operates as an information services provider in the Americas, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through three segments: Academia & Government, Life Sciences & Healthcare, and Intellectual Property. The company offers Web of Science and InCites, that analyzes and explores the academic research landscape and manages research information; ProQuest One and Ebook Central that provides comprehensive content collections to institutions in a cost-effective manner; and Alma and Polaris, that manages academic resources and services, connect users, and support research publications. It also provides Patent and Trademark Renewals, that supports paralegal and admin tasks throughout the patent and trademark protection and maintenance process; CompuMark and Derwent, that supports critical decisions around patent and trademark protection, risk, and value creation throughout the innovation and brand lifecycle; IPFolio and Foundation IP that creates a structured environment for the protection and management of global patent and trademark assets. In addition, the company offers Cortellis Competitive Intelligence and Cortellis Drug Discovery Intelligence, that supports the development of new drugs and medical devices from discovery to clinical trials; Cortellis Regulatory Intelligence and OFF-X to monitor drug safety issues and adhere to regulatory protocols; Real World Data and Optimize that inform commercial launch strategy and set pricing for optimal reimbursement. It serves corporations, universities, law firms, government agencies, public libraries, and other professional services organizations. The company was formerly known as Clarivate Analytics Plc and changed its name to Clarivate Plc in May 2020. Clarivate Plc was founded in 1864 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.