Financial Review: Knightscope (NASDAQ:KSCP) & Turtle Beach (NASDAQ:TBCH)

Knightscope (NASDAQ:KSCP) and Turtle Beach (NASDAQ:TBCH) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Knightscope and Turtle Beach”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Knightscope	$11.01 million	0.93	-$22.12 million	($13.58)	-0.22
Turtle Beach	$372.77 million	0.76	-$17.68 million	$0.77	18.34

Turtle Beach has higher revenue and earnings than Knightscope. Knightscope is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Turtle Beach, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Knightscope and Turtle Beach’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Knightscope	-284.42%	N/A	-129.83%
Turtle Beach	1.41%	9.18%	3.88%

Risk and Volatility

Knightscope has a beta of 1.58, suggesting that its share price is 58% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Turtle Beach has a beta of 2.05, suggesting that its share price is 105% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Knightscope and Turtle Beach, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Knightscope	0	0	2	0	3.00
Turtle Beach	0	0	1	0	3.00

Knightscope currently has a consensus target price of $16.50, suggesting a potential upside of 461.22%. Turtle Beach has a consensus target price of $21.00, suggesting a potential upside of 48.73%. Given Knightscope’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Knightscope is more favorable than Turtle Beach.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

14.6% of Knightscope shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.0% of Turtle Beach shares are held by institutional investors. 15.4% of Knightscope shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.1% of Turtle Beach shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Turtle Beach beats Knightscope on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Knightscope

Knightscope, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, deploys, and supports autonomous security robots (ASR) in the United States. Its products include K3 and K5 ASRs designed to roam a geo-fenced area autonomously by utilizing numerous sensors and lasers, either on a random basis or based on a particular patrolling algorithm to navigate around people, vehicles, and objects in dynamic indoor or outdoor environments; K1, an ASR for used in indoors or outdoors and at ingress/egress points for both people and vehicles; and K7, a multi-terrain ASR. The company also develops and operates the Knightscope security operations center (KSOC), a browser-based interface, which allows real-time data access service to its clients for alert of an abnormal event; and Knightscope network operations center (KNOC), a custom set of tools that enables it to manage and monitor the network of ASRs with alerts related to critical indicators and statistics, including charging, software, navigation, and temperatures, as well as to execute over-the-air software upgrades, patches, and other related items. In addition, it offers Knightscope+, a virtual monitoring and response solution that provides an alternative for client sites. The company serves airports, commercial real estate, corporate campus, homeowner associations, hotels, universities, municipalities, rail, healthcare, public parks, schools, casinos, corporations, logistics, manufacturing, law enforcement, Parking areas, municipalities, universities, and property management companies, as well as the U.S. federal government. Knightscope, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

About Turtle Beach

Turtle Beach Corporation operates as an audio technology company. It develops, commercializes, and markets gaming headset solutions for various platforms, including video game and entertainment consoles, personal computers, handheld consoles, tablets, and mobile devices under the Turtle Beach brand. The company also offers gaming headsets, keyboards, mice, mousepads, and other accessories for the personal computer peripherals market under the brand of ROCCAT, as well as digital USB and analog microphones under the Neat Microphones brand. It serves retailers, distributors, and other customers in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and internationally. The company was founded in 1975 and is headquartered in White Plains, New York.