LiveWorld (OTCMKTS:LVWD) versus comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) Critical Contrast

comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) and LiveWorld (OTCMKTS:LVWD) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and risk.

Risk & Volatility

comScore has a beta of 1.21, suggesting that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LiveWorld has a beta of 0.4, suggesting that its stock price is 60% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for comScore and LiveWorld, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
comScore	0	1	1	0	2.50
LiveWorld	0	0	0	0	0.00

comScore presently has a consensus price target of $10.75, suggesting a potential upside of 61.41%. Given comScore’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe comScore is more favorable than LiveWorld.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares comScore and LiveWorld”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
comScore	$356.05 million	0.09	-$79.36 million	($15.33)	-0.43
LiveWorld	$11.46 million	0.53	$210,000.00	N/A	N/A

LiveWorld has lower revenue, but higher earnings than comScore.

Profitability

This table compares comScore and LiveWorld’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
comScore	-25.77%	-243.87%	-19.79%
LiveWorld	-4.14%	-10.53%	-6.52%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

42.2% of comScore shares are held by institutional investors. 8.8% of comScore shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.3% of LiveWorld shares are held 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.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. operates as an information and analytics company that measures audiences, consumer behavior, and advertising across media platforms in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and internationally. The company provides digital ad solutions, including Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix, which measure websites and applications on computers, smartphones, and tablets; Video Metrix that delivers measurement of digital video consumption; Plan Metrix, which offers understanding of consumer lifestyle; Total Home Panel Suite, which capture OTT, connected TV, and IOT device usage and content consumption; CCR, which enhances validated campaign essentials verification of mobile and desktop video campaigns; XMedia Enhanced, which provides a deduplicated view of national programming content; Comscore marketing solutions; Lift Models, which measures the impact of advertising on a brand; Survey Analytics, which measure various consumer insights including brand health metrics; and Activation Solutions, including audience activation and content activation. The company's cross platform solutions products and services comprises Comscore TVNational that helps customers understand the performance of network advertising campaigns; Comscore TVLocal allows customers to understand consumer viewing patterns and characteristics; OnDemand Essentials that provides transactional tracking and reporting; Movie Solutions; and Hollywood Software Suite. In addition, it offers custom solutions for planning, optimization, and evaluation of advertising campaigns and brand protection. Further, the company provides products that measure movie viewership and box office results by capturing movie ticket sales in real time or near real time. It serves digital publishers, television networks, movie studios, content owners, brand advertisers, agencies, and technology providers. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

About LiveWorld

LiveWorld, Inc., a digital agency and software company, provides social media and technology solutions for pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and financial-travel service industries. It offers consulting, strategy, and creative solutions with human agents for moderation, engagement, customer care, and adverse events management, as well as conversation management software, and chatbots for digital campaigns and social media programs. The company was formerly known as Talk City, Inc. and changed its name to Liveworld, Inc. in May 2001. Liveworld, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Campbell, California.