VeriSign (VRSN) Competitors

SEA (NYSE:SE) and VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, community ranking, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings and media sentiment.

Do analysts prefer SE or VRSN?

SEA presently has a consensus price target of $91.21, suggesting a potential downside of 20.77%. VeriSign has a consensus price target of $244.00, suggesting a potential upside of 16.35%. Given VeriSign's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe VeriSign is more favorable than SEA.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SEA	1 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	11 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.80
VeriSign	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.33

Does the media favor SE or VRSN?

In the previous week, VeriSign had 3 more articles in the media than SEA. MarketBeat recorded 6 mentions for VeriSign and 3 mentions for SEA. VeriSign's average media sentiment score of 0.90 beat SEA's score of 0.89 indicating that VeriSign is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
SEA	3 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
VeriSign	3 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, SE or VRSN?

VeriSign has lower revenue, but higher earnings than SEA. VeriSign is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SEA, 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
SEA	$13.06B	5.04	$150.73M	$0.15	767.53
VeriSign	$1.49B	13.50	$817.60M	$8.60	24.39

Is SE or VRSN more profitable?

VeriSign has a net margin of 55.74% compared to SEA's net margin of 0.64%. SEA's return on equity of 1.40% beat VeriSign's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SEA	0.64%	1.40%	0.50%
VeriSign	55.74%	-45.59%	49.06%

Which has more volatility and risk, SE or VRSN?

SEA has a beta of 1.54, indicating that its share price is 54% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VeriSign has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor SE or VRSN?

SEA received 109 more outperform votes than VeriSign when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.07% of users gave SEA an outperform vote while only 62.28% of users gave VeriSign an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
SEA	Outperform Votes 502 63.07%	Underperform Votes 294 36.93%
VeriSign	Outperform Votes 393 62.28%	Underperform Votes 238 37.72%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in SE or VRSN?

59.5% of SEA shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.9% of VeriSign shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of SEA shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.8% of VeriSign shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

VeriSign beats SEA on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.