Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) vs. Spire Global (NYSE:SPIR) Critical Review

Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) and Spire Global (NYSE:SPIR) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares Research Solutions and Spire Global’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Research Solutions	5.84%	15.55%	6.22%
Spire Global	-145.22%	-54.03%	-30.80%

Volatility and Risk

Research Solutions has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its share price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Spire Global has a beta of 2.81, meaning that its share price is 181% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

33.6% of Research Solutions shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 20.0% of Spire Global shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.5% of Research Solutions shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.0% of Spire Global shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Research Solutions and Spire Global, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Research Solutions	1	1	3	0	2.40
Spire Global	1	0	5	0	2.67

Research Solutions presently has a consensus price target of $3.83, indicating a potential upside of 95.58%. Spire Global has a consensus price target of $17.90, indicating a potential upside of 94.46%. Given Research Solutions’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Research Solutions is more favorable than Spire Global.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Research Solutions and Spire Global”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Research Solutions	$48.31 million	1.37	$2.82 million	$0.09	21.78
Spire Global	$71.55 million	5.03	$51.31 million	($2.67)	-3.45

Spire Global has higher revenue and earnings than Research Solutions. Spire Global is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Research Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Spire Global beats Research Solutions on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Research Solutions

Research Solutions, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides research cloud-based software-as-a-service software platform and related services to corporate, academic, government and individual researchers in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It provides Discover platform that facilitates search discovery across virtually all scientific, technical, and medical (STM) articles available, including free basic search solutions and advanced search tools, which include the Resolute.ai and scite.ai products, a tools that allows for searching and identifying relevant research and find insights in other datasets adjacent to STM content, such as clinical trial, patent, life science and medtech regulatory information, competitor and technology landscape insights in addition to searching the customer’s internal datasets. The company also offers Article Galaxy, a solution that allows research organizations to load their entitlements, consisting of subscriptions, discount or token packages, and their existing library of articles. In addition, it provides Manage platform, a references solution that allows users to access the article inside the platform including setting up personal folders or team folders and allows researchers to markup and take notes on the articles in a supported browser on a desktop or tablet. Further, the company’s platform facilitates the sale of published STM content sold as individual articles. The company was formerly known as Derycz Scientific, Inc. and changed its name to Research Solutions, Inc. in March 2013. Research Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.

About Spire Global

Spire Global, Inc. provides subscription-based data, insights, predictive analytics, and related project-based services worldwide. The company offers satellite-based aircraft tracking data to power applications, drive decision making, and improve cost efficiencies; data, insights, and predictive analytics for highly accurate ship monitoring, real-time and near real-time vessel updates, port operations, ship safety and route optimization; and space-based data, AI-powered insights, and predictive weather analytics for accurate weather forecasting. It serves maritime, weather, aviation, and space services industries. The company was formerly known as Nanosatisfi, Inc. and changed its name to Spire Global, Inc. in July 2014. Spire Global, Inc. is headquartered in Vienna, Virginia.