LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Critical Review

LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP) and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares LiveRamp and Adobe’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LiveRamp	18.71%	9.77%	7.41%
Adobe	28.05%	65.65%	25.54%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

93.8% of LiveRamp shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.8% of Adobe shares are held by institutional investors. 3.3% of LiveRamp shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Adobe 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.

Volatility & Risk

LiveRamp has a beta of 1.25, meaning that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Adobe has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its share price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LiveRamp and Adobe”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LiveRamp	$812.94 million	2.82	$145.95 million	$2.44	15.44
Adobe	$23.77 billion	4.44	$7.13 billion	$17.92	14.82

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for LiveRamp and Adobe, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LiveRamp	0	6	2	0	2.25
Adobe	5	21	7	0	2.06

LiveRamp presently has a consensus target price of $40.21, suggesting a potential upside of 6.77%. Adobe has a consensus target price of $282.68, suggesting a potential upside of 6.43%. Given LiveRamp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe LiveRamp is more favorable than Adobe.

Summary

Adobe beats LiveRamp on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LiveRamp

LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., a technology company, operates a data collaboration platform in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates LiveRamp Data Collaboration platform enables an organization to unify customer and prospect data to build a single view of the customer in a way that protects consumer privacy. Its platform supports various people-based marketing solutions, including data collaboration, activation, measurement and analytics, identity, and data marketplace. The company sells its solutions to enterprise marketers, agencies, marketing technology providers, publishers, and data providers in various industry verticals, such as financial, insurance and investment services, retail, automotive, telecommunications, high tech, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, travel, entertainment, and non-profit. The company was formerly known as Acxiom Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. in October 2018. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Adobe

Adobe Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified software company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Digital Media, Digital Experience, and Publishing and Advertising. The Digital Media segment offers products, services, and solutions that enable individuals, teams, and enterprises to create, publish, and promote content; and Document Cloud, a unified cloud-based document services platform. Its flagship product is Creative Cloud, a subscription service that allows members to access its creative products. This segment serves content creators, students, workers, marketers, educators, enthusiasts, and communicators. The Digital Experience segment provides an integrated platform and set of applications and services that enable brands and businesses to create, manage, execute, measure, monetize, and optimize customer experiences from analytics to commerce. This segment serves marketers, advertisers, agencies, publishers, merchandisers, merchants, web analysts, data scientists, developers, and executives across the C-suite. The Publishing and Advertising segment offers products and services, such as e-learning solutions, technical document publishing, web conferencing, document and forms platform, web application development, and high-end printing, as well as Advertising Cloud offerings. It also provides consulting, technical support, and learning services. The company offers its products and services directly to enterprise customers through its sales force and local field offices, as well as to end users through app stores and through its website at adobe.com. It also distributes products and services through distributors, value-added resellers, systems integrators, software vendors and developers, retailers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Adobe Systems Incorporated and changed its name to Adobe Inc. in October 2018. Adobe Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.