Reviewing Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART) & InterCloud Systems (OTCMKTS:ICLD)

Maplebear (NASDAQ:CART) and InterCloud Systems (OTCMKTS:ICLD) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Maplebear and InterCloud Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Maplebear	13.37%	13.78%	10.51%
InterCloud Systems	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Maplebear and InterCloud Systems, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Maplebear	0	13	15	1	2.59
InterCloud Systems	0	0	0	0	0.00

Maplebear presently has a consensus target price of $50.52, suggesting a potential upside of 25.80%. Given Maplebear’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Maplebear is more favorable than InterCloud Systems.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

63.1% of Maplebear shares are held by institutional investors. 36.0% of Maplebear shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of InterCloud Systems shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Maplebear and InterCloud Systems”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Maplebear	$3.38 billion	3.15	-$1.62 billion	$1.58	25.42
InterCloud Systems	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

InterCloud Systems has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Maplebear.

Risk and Volatility

Maplebear has a beta of 1.34, meaning that its stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, InterCloud Systems has a beta of 1.99, meaning that its stock price is 99% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Maplebear beats InterCloud Systems on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Maplebear

Maplebear Inc., doing business as Instacart, engages in the provision of online grocery shopping services to households in North America. It sells and delivers grocery products, as well as pickup services through a mobile application and website. It also operates virtual convenience stores; and provides software-as-a-service solutions to retailers. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California.

About InterCloud Systems

InterCloud Systems, Inc. provides networking orchestration and automation for software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization environments to telecommunications service provider and corporate enterprise markets in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Applications and Infrastructure and Professional Services. The Applications and Infrastructure segment provides applications and services, including SDN training, SDN software development and integration, and vertical network function validation; and cabling and other field installations, as well as designs, engineers, installs, and maintains various types of Wi-Fi and DAS networks to enterprise customers. The Professional Services segment engages in the design and deployment of SDN and software-defined wide area networking solutions for enterprise and carrier accounts. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is based in Boca Raton, Florida.