Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos (SST) Competitors

Spirent Communications (LON:SPT) and Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos (LON:SST) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, earnings, community ranking, profitability, media sentiment, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Is SPT or SST a better dividend stock?

Spirent Communications pays an annual dividend of GBX 6 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos pays an annual dividend of GBX 13 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Spirent Communications pays out 30,000.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos pays out 778.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Does the media prefer SPT or SST?

In the previous week, Spirent Communications had 7 more articles in the media than Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos. MarketBeat recorded 7 mentions for Spirent Communications and 0 mentions for Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos. Spirent Communications' average media sentiment score of 0.55 beat Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos' score of 0.00 indicating that Spirent Communications is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Spirent Communications	Positive
Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos	Neutral

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of SPT or SST?

124.2% of Spirent Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.2% of Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.3% of Spirent Communications shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.5% of Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos 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.

Do analysts rate SPT or SST?

Spirent Communications currently has a consensus price target of GBX 236.80, indicating a potential upside of 33.03%. Given Spirent Communications' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Spirent Communications is more favorable than Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Spirent Communications	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	0.00

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SPT or SST?

Spirent Communications received 499 more outperform votes than Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 70.63% of users gave Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos an outperform vote while only 59.23% of users gave Spirent Communications an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Spirent Communications	Outperform Votes 600 59.23%	Underperform Votes 413 40.77%
Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos	Outperform Votes 101 70.63%	Underperform Votes 42 29.37%

Is SPT or SST more profitable?

Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos has a net margin of 75.42% compared to Spirent Communications' net margin of 2.97%. Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos' return on equity of 11.37% beat Spirent Communications' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Spirent Communications	2.97%	3.56%	2.77%
Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos	75.42%	11.37%	8.03%

Which has preferable valuation & earnings, SPT or SST?

Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Spirent Communications. Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Spirent Communications, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Spirent Communications	£447.70M	2.27	£13.30M	£0.02	8,900.00
Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos	£53.86M	6.55	£40.62M	£1.67	896.53

Which has more risk & volatility, SPT or SST?

Spirent Communications has a beta of 0.57, meaning that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos has a beta of 0.37, meaning that its share price is 63% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Spirent Communications beats Scottish Oriental Smaller Cos on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.