Financial Review: Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) versus Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY)

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) and Runway Growth Finance (NASDAQ:RWAY) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Coinbase Global and Runway Growth Finance, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coinbase Global	2	9	9	0	2.35
Runway Growth Finance	0	6	1	0	2.14

Coinbase Global currently has a consensus target price of $215.50, indicating a potential downside of 3.79%. Runway Growth Finance has a consensus target price of $12.65, indicating a potential upside of 7.39%. Given Runway Growth Finance’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Runway Growth Finance is more favorable than Coinbase Global.

Risk and Volatility

Coinbase Global has a beta of 3.44, suggesting that its share price is 244% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Runway Growth Finance has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its share price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Coinbase Global and Runway Growth Finance’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coinbase Global	$3.11 billion	17.70	$94.87 million	$5.01	44.71
Runway Growth Finance	$164.21 million	2.83	$44.34 million	$1.10	10.71

Coinbase Global has higher revenue and earnings than Runway Growth Finance. Runway Growth Finance is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Coinbase Global, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Coinbase Global and Runway Growth Finance’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coinbase Global	33.98%	9.42%	0.30%
Runway Growth Finance	26.93%	14.17%	7.34%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

68.8% of Coinbase Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.6% of Runway Growth Finance shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.4% of Coinbase Global shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.0% of Runway Growth Finance shares are owned 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.

Summary

Coinbase Global beats Runway Growth Finance on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coinbase Global

Coinbase Global, Inc. provides financial infrastructure and technology for the crypto economy in the United States and internationally. The company offers the primary financial account in the crypto economy for consumers; and a marketplace with a pool of liquidity for transacting in crypto assets for institutions. It also provides technology and services that enable developers to build crypto products and securely accept crypto assets as payment. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware.

About Runway Growth Finance

Runway Growth Finance Corp. is a business development company specializing investments in senior-secured loans to late stage and growth companies. It prefers to make investments in companies engaged in the technology, life sciences, healthcare and information services, business services and select consumer services and products sectors. It prefers to investments in companies engaged in electronic equipment and instruments, systems software, hardware, storage and peripherals and specialized consumer services, application software, healthcare technology, internet software and services, data processing and outsourced services, internet retail, human resources and employment services, biotechnology, healthcare equipment and education services. It invests in senior secured loans between $10 million and $75 million.