MINDBODY (NASDAQ: MB) and Sphere 3D (NASDAQ:ANY) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
Get MINDBODY alerts:90.3% of MINDBODY shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.6% of Sphere 3D shares are held by institutional investors. 6.0% of MINDBODY shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Sphere 3D shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares MINDBODY and Sphere 3D’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| MINDBODY | -11.85% | -7.05% | -5.93% |
| Sphere 3D | -31.80% | -84.04% | -11.62% |
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current ratings for MINDBODY and Sphere 3D, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| MINDBODY | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 2.73 |
| Sphere 3D | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A |
MINDBODY presently has a consensus target price of $38.65, suggesting a potential upside of 8.87%. Given MINDBODY’s higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe MINDBODY is more favorable than Sphere 3D.
Volatility & Risk
MINDBODY has a beta of -0.16, suggesting that its share price is 116% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sphere 3D has a beta of 2.35, suggesting that its share price is 135% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares MINDBODY and Sphere 3D’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| MINDBODY | $182.63 million | 9.23 | -$14.79 million | ($0.30) | -118.33 |
| Sphere 3D | $81.52 million | 0.06 | -$26.18 million | N/A | N/A |
MINDBODY has higher revenue and earnings than Sphere 3D.
Summary
MINDBODY beats Sphere 3D on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.
MINDBODY Company Profile
MINDBODY, Inc. operates a cloud-based business management software and payments platform for the small and medium-sized businesses in the wellness services industry. Its platform enables businesses to run, market, and build scheduling and online booking, performance tracking, staff management, client relationship management, integrated payment processing, retail point-of-sale, purchase tracking, inventory, hardware integration, analytics and reporting, branded Web, mobility, social integration, client acquisition dashboard, security and compliance, and integration with other cloud-based partners for yoga, Pilates, indoor cycling, group and personal training, boutique fitness, salons, spas, and integrative health businesses. The company offers its software platform to its subscribers as a subscription-based service. It also connects consumers with businesses through its MINDBODY app, a consumer-facing mobile application that allows consumers to discover, evaluate, book, and pay for wellness services; MINDBODY Network, a fee-based platform that connects its customers with local consumers through the MINDBODY app and third-party partner applications, or Websites; and MINDBODY API Platform and Partner Ecosystem, a platform focuses in areas, such as marketing automation, accounting, loyalty, mobile, and social interactions. The company sells its subscriptions through a direct sales team primarily in San Luis Obispo, California; the United Kingdom; and Australia. MINDBODY, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in San Luis Obispo, California.
Sphere 3D Company Profile
Sphere 3D Corp. provides data management, and desktop and application virtualization solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It enables organizations to deploy a combination of public, private, or hybrid cloud strategies through containerized applications, virtual desktops, virtual storage, and physical hyper-converged platforms. The company offers RDX removable disk systems that provide scalability, centralized management, encryption and duplication, and reliability for backup, archive, data interchange, and disaster recovery; G-Series Appliance and G-Series Cloud applications; and Glassware Open Virtual Appliance and Open Virtual Format products. It also provides HVE converged and hyper-converged Infrastructure solutions, such as HVE-STACK high density server solution; HVE-VELOCITY high availability dual enclosure storage area network solution; and HVE 3DGFX, a virtualized desktop infrastructure solution. In addition, the company offers SnapServer network attached storage solution, a platform for primary or nearline storage for integration with Windows, UNIX/Linux, and Macintosh environments; NEO tape-based backup and long-term archive solutions, including tape libraries, autoloaders, and drives, as well as linear tape file system solutions; and LTO tape drives and media products. Sphere 3D Corp. markets its products under the RDX, Glassware 2.0, SnapCLOUD, SnapServer, SnapSync, NEO, and V3 brand names. The company sells its products through its distributor and reseller network to small and medium businesses, and distributed enterprises. Sphere 3D Corp. is headquartered in Mississauga, Canada.
News coverage about Verso (NYSE:VRS) has trended somewhat positive recently, according to Accern Sentiment. The research firm identifies negative and positive media coverage by analyzing more than 20 million news and blog sources. Accern ranks coverage of companies on a scale of -1 to 1, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Verso earned a daily sentiment score of 0.11 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news headlines about the basic materials company an impact score of 45.5895559268372 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the immediate future.