Financial Review: Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) versus Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG)

Coupang (NYSE:CPNG) and Booking (NASDAQ:BKNG) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, dividends, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

Coupang has a beta of 1.12, meaning that its stock price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Booking has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

83.7% of Coupang shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Booking shares are held by institutional investors. 12.8% of Coupang shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Booking shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Coupang and Booking’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coupang	-0.47%	-3.67%	-0.92%
Booking	22.23%	-117.14%	25.85%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Coupang and Booking”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coupang	$34.53 billion	0.80	$208.00 million	($0.09)	-170.61
Booking	$27.69 billion	4.64	$5.40 billion	$7.60	21.82

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Coupang and Booking, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coupang	2	5	4	0	2.18
Booking	0	8	28	1	2.81

Coupang presently has a consensus target price of $26.92, indicating a potential upside of 75.32%. Booking has a consensus target price of $227.14, indicating a potential upside of 36.96%. Given Coupang’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Coupang is more favorable than Booking.

Summary

Booking beats Coupang on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coupang

Coupang, Inc., together with its subsidiaries owns and operates retail business through its mobile applications and Internet websites primarily in South Korea. The company operates through Product Commerce and Developing Offerings segments. It sells various products and services in the categories of home goods and décor products, apparel, beauty products, fresh food and groceries, sporting goods, electronics, and everyday consumables, as well as travel, and restaurant order and delivery services. In addition, the company offers Rocket Fresh, which offers fresh groceries; Coupang Eats, a restaurant ordering and delivery services; and Coupang Play, an online content streaming services, as well as advertising products. It also performs operations and support services in the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Japan, and India. Coupang, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

About Booking

Booking Holdings Inc, formerly The Priceline Group Inc., is a provider of travel and restaurant online reservation and related services. The Company, through its online travel companies (OTCs), connects consumers wishing to make travel reservations with providers of travel services across the world. It offers consumers an array of accommodation reservations (including hotels, bed and breakfasts, hostels, apartments, vacation rentals and other properties) through its Booking.com, priceline.com and agoda.com brands. Its other brands include KAYAK, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable, Inc. (OpenTable). As of December 31, 2016, Booking.com offered accommodation reservation services for over 1,115,000 properties in over 220 countries and territories on its various Websites and in over 40 languages, which included over 568,000 vacation rental properties (updated property counts were available on the Booking.com Website).