4imprint Group (FOUR) Competitors

4imprint Group (LON:FOUR) and Ascential (LON:ASCL) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, media sentiment, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, community ranking, dividends, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Which has more volatility and risk, FOUR or ASCL?

4imprint Group has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ascential has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, FOUR or ASCL?

4imprint Group has higher revenue and earnings than Ascential. 4imprint Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ascential, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
4imprint Group	£1.33B	1.33	£106.20M	£2.27	2,766.52
Ascential	£206.40M	7.26	£4.20M	£0.01	33,890.00

Do analysts rate FOUR or ASCL?

4imprint Group presently has a consensus target price of GBX 7,365, suggesting a potential upside of 17.68%. Ascential has a consensus target price of GBX 285, suggesting a potential downside of 15.90%. Given 4imprint Group's higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe 4imprint Group is more favorable than Ascential.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
4imprint Group	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Ascential	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Does the MarketBeat Community favor FOUR or ASCL?

Ascential received 180 more outperform votes than 4imprint Group when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 79.71% of users gave Ascential an outperform vote while only 72.75% of users gave 4imprint Group an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
4imprint Group	Outperform Votes 315 72.75%	Underperform Votes 118 27.25%
Ascential	Outperform Votes 495 79.71%	Underperform Votes 126 20.29%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in FOUR or ASCL?

80.2% of 4imprint Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 112.2% of Ascential shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of 4imprint Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 8.5% of Ascential shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Is FOUR or ASCL more profitable?

4imprint Group has a net margin of 8.01% compared to Ascential's net margin of -92.68%. 4imprint Group's return on equity of 77.32% beat Ascential's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
4imprint Group	8.01%	77.32%	35.68%
Ascential	-92.68%	0.89%	1.36%

Does the media prefer FOUR or ASCL?

In the previous week, Ascential had 2 more articles in the media than 4imprint Group. MarketBeat recorded 2 mentions for Ascential and 0 mentions for 4imprint Group. Ascential's average media sentiment score of 0.72 beat 4imprint Group's score of 0.00 indicating that Ascential is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
4imprint Group	Neutral
Ascential	Positive

Is FOUR or ASCL a better dividend stock?

4imprint Group pays an annual dividend of GBX 168 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.7%. Ascential pays an annual dividend of GBX 6 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. 4imprint Group pays out 7,400.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Ascential pays out 60,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. 4imprint Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

Ascential beats 4imprint Group on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.