Financial Analysis: Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) and PJT Partners (NYSE:PJT)

PJT Partners (NYSE:PJT) and Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares PJT Partners and Core Scientific’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PJT Partners	10.51%	31.69%	17.69%
Core Scientific	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for PJT Partners and Core Scientific, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PJT Partners	1	3	2	1	2.43
Core Scientific	2	3	15	1	2.71

PJT Partners presently has a consensus price target of $170.50, suggesting a potential upside of 7.62%. Core Scientific has a consensus price target of $25.07, suggesting a potential upside of 26.19%. Given Core Scientific’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Core Scientific is more favorable than PJT Partners.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

89.2% of PJT Partners shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.8% of PJT Partners shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Core Scientific shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

PJT Partners has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Core Scientific has a beta of 6.34, suggesting that its share price is 534% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares PJT Partners and Core Scientific”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PJT Partners	$1.71 billion	2.23	$180.12 million	$6.64	23.86
Core Scientific	$319.02 million	19.66	$369.25 million	$1.17	16.98

Core Scientific has lower revenue, but higher earnings than PJT Partners. Core Scientific is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PJT Partners, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

PJT Partners beats Core Scientific on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PJT Partners

PJT Partners Inc., an investment bank, provides various strategic and capital markets advisory, restructuring and special situations, and shareholder advisory services to corporations, financial sponsors, institutional investors, and governments worldwide. It offers advisory services to clients on various transactions, including mergers and acquisitions (M&A), spin-offs, activism defense, contested M&A, joint ventures, minority investments, and divestitures. The company also advises private and public company boards and management teams on strategies for building productive investor relationships with a focus on shareholder engagement; and strategic investor relations; environmental, social, and governance matters; and other investor-related matters. In addition, it provides advisory services related to debt and acquisition financings; structured product offerings; public equity raises, including initial public offering and SPAC offerings; and private capital raises for early and later stage companies, as well as other capital structure related matters. Further, the company offers advisory services in financial restructurings and reorganizations; liability management; distressed mergers and acquisitions; and to management teams, corporate boards, sponsors and creditors. Additionally, it provides private fund advisory and fundraising services for a range of investment strategies; and advisory services to general and partners on liquidity and other structured solutions. The company was formerly known as Blackstone Advisory Inc. and changed its name to PJT Partners Inc. in March 2015. PJT Partners Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About Core Scientific

Core Scientific, Inc. provides digital asset mining services in North America. It operates through two segments, Mining and Hosting. The company offers blockchain infrastructure, software solutions, and services; and operates data center mining facilities. It also mines digital assets for its own account; and provides hosting services for other large bitcoin miners, which include deployment, monitoring, trouble shooting, optimization, and maintenance of its customers' digital asset mining equipment. In addition, the company provides electrical power, repair, and other infrastructure services to operate, maintain, and earn digital assets; and sells mining equipment to customers. Core Scientific, Inc. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Dover, Delaware.