Contrasting Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) and Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK)

Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK) and Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation and earnings.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

2.4% of Argo Blockchain shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of Green Dot shares are held by institutional investors. 1.1% of Green Dot shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Argo Blockchain and Green Dot, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Argo Blockchain	1	2	0	0	1.67
Green Dot	1	2	0	0	1.67

Argo Blockchain currently has a consensus target price of $1.45, suggesting a potential upside of 287.70%. Green Dot has a consensus target price of $9.33, suggesting a potential upside of 31.55%. Given Argo Blockchain’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Argo Blockchain is more favorable than Green Dot.

Volatility and Risk

Argo Blockchain has a beta of 1.95, indicating that its stock price is 95% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Green Dot has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its stock price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Argo Blockchain and Green Dot”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Argo Blockchain	$60.03 million	0.45	-$35.03 million	($0.72)	-0.52
Green Dot	$1.63 billion	0.23	$6.72 million	($0.51)	-13.91

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

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Argo Blockchain	-92.08%	N/A	-59.43%
Green Dot	-3.39%	3.84%	0.65%

Summary

Green Dot beats Argo Blockchain on 8 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Argo Blockchain

Argo Blockchain plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies mining business worldwide. It engages in mining purpose-built computers for complex cryptographic algorithms. The company was formerly known as GoSun Blockchain Limited and changed its name to Argo Blockchain plc in December 2017. Argo Blockchain plc was incorporated in 2017 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

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.