Reviewing Cars.com (NYSE:CARS) and Phunware (NASDAQ:PHUN)

Phunware (NASDAQ:PHUN) and Cars.com (NYSE:CARS) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Phunware has a beta of 2.54, suggesting that its share price is 154% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cars.com has a beta of 2.11, suggesting that its share price is 111% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Phunware and Cars.com, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Phunware	0	0	3	0	3.00
Cars.com	0	2	2	0	2.50

Phunware presently has a consensus target price of $16.33, indicating a potential upside of 88.17%. Cars.com has a consensus target price of $22.25, indicating a potential upside of 37.60%. Given Phunware’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Phunware is more favorable than Cars.com.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Phunware and Cars.com”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Phunware	$4.12 million	23.87	-$52.78 million	N/A	N/A
Cars.com	$713.01 million	1.50	$118.44 million	$1.57	10.30

Cars.com has higher revenue and earnings than Phunware.

Profitability

This table compares Phunware and Cars.com’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Phunware	N/A	-438.21%	-127.45%
Cars.com	3.51%	6.70%	2.88%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

7.6% of Phunware shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.2% of Cars.com shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Phunware shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Cars.com shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Cars.com beats Phunware on 7 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Phunware

Phunware, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated software platform that equips companies with the products, solutions, and services to engage, manage, and monetize their mobile application portfolios in the United States and internationally. The company's products and services include mobile software and application transaction solutions comprise integration of software development kit (SDK) licenses, which consists of analytics that offers data related to application use and engagement; content management that allows application administrators to create and manage app content in a cloud-based portal; alerts, notifications, and messaging, which enables brands to send messages; marketing automation that enables location-triggered messages and workflow; advertising; and location-based services, such as mapping, navigation, wayfinding, workflow, asset management, and policy enforcement. It is also involved in the integration of its SDK licenses into existing applications maintained by its customers, as well as custom application development and support services; and provision of cloud-based vertical solutions for healthcare, retail, sports, aviation, real estate, hospitality, education, and other applications, as well as application transactions, including re-occurring and one-time transactional media purchases for application discovery, user acquisition and audience building, audience engagement, and audience monetization. Phunware, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Cars.com

Cars.com Inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a digital automotive marketplace that connects local car dealers to consumers in the United States. The company offers a suite of digital solutions that creates connections between individuals researching cars or looking to purchase a car with car dealerships and automotive original equipment manufacturers. It also sells online subscription advertising products to car dealerships by its direct sales force, as well as through its affiliate sales channel. In addition, the company sells display advertising to national advertisers. Further, it offers online automotive marketplace service that connects buyers and sellers through Cars.com, Auto.com, DealerRater.com, NewCars.com, PickupTrucks.com, DealerInspire.com, and LaunchDigitalMarketing.com Websites. Its platform hosts approximately 4.9 million new and used vehicle listings and serves approximately 20,000 franchise and independent car dealers. Cars.com Inc. was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.