Reviewing Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) and Heritage Global (NASDAQ:HGBL)

Heritage Global (NASDAQ:HGBL) and Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) are both finance companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Heritage Global and Uber Technologies, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Heritage Global	0	0	0	0	N/A
Uber Technologies	0	4	31	0	2.89

Uber Technologies has a consensus price target of $87.60, suggesting a potential upside of 18.47%. Given Uber Technologies’ higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Uber Technologies is more favorable than Heritage Global.

Volatility and Risk

Heritage Global has a beta of 1.2, meaning that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Uber Technologies has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

33.5% of Heritage Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.2% of Uber Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.8% of Heritage Global shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Uber Technologies shares are owned by 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Heritage Global and Uber Technologies”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Heritage Global	$55.02 million	1.15	$12.48 million	$0.30	5.67
Uber Technologies	$40.06 billion	3.86	$1.89 billion	$0.62	119.26

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

Profitability

This table compares Heritage Global and Uber Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heritage Global	20.29%	19.14%	13.81%
Uber Technologies	5.02%	17.06%	5.16%

Summary

Uber Technologies beats Heritage Global on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Heritage Global

Heritage Global Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an asset services company with focus on financial and industrial asset transactions. The company operates in three segments: Auction and Liquidation, Refurbishment & Resale, and Brokerage. It provides a suite of market making, acquisitions, refurbishment, dispositions, valuations, and secured lending services. The company focuses on identifying, valuing, acquiring, and monetizing underlying tangible assets. It acts as an adviser, as well as a principal, acquiring, or brokering manufacturing facilities; surplus industrial machinery and equipment; industrial inventories; and charged-off receivable portfolios. The company was formerly known as Counsel RB Capital Inc. and changed its name to Heritage Global, Inc. in August 2013. Heritage Global, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About Uber Technologies

Uber Technologies, Inc. develops and operates proprietary technology applications in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia excluding China and Southeast Asia. It operates through three segments: Mobility, Delivery, and Freight. The Mobility segment connects consumers with a range of transportation modalities, such as ridesharing, carsharing, micromobility, rentals, public transit, taxis, and other modalities; and offers riders in a variety of vehicle types, as well as financial partnerships products and advertising services. The Delivery segment allows to search for and discover restaurants to grocery, alcohol, convenience, and other retails; order a meal or other items; and Uber direct, a white-label Delivery-as-a-Service for retailers and restaurants, as well as advertising. The Freight segment manages transportation and logistics network, which connects shippers and carriers in digital marketplace including carriers upfronts, pricing, and shipment booking; and provides on-demand platform to automate logistics end-to-end transactions for small-and medium-sized business to global enterprises. The company was formerly known as Ubercab, Inc. and changed its name to Uber Technologies, Inc. in February 2011. Uber Technologies, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.