Head to Head Analysis: VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) and Ntt Data (OTC:NTDTY)

Ntt Data (OTC:NTDTY) and VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, dividends and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.9% of VeriSign shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of VeriSign shares are owned by 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.

Profitability

This table compares Ntt Data and VeriSign’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Ntt Data	3.20%	5.16%	1.97%
VeriSign	50.47%	-43.01%	51.54%

Volatility and Risk

Ntt Data has a beta of 0.96, meaning that its stock price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VeriSign has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Ntt Data and VeriSign”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Ntt Data	$30.25 billion	0.82	$923.70 million	$0.70	25.24
VeriSign	$1.56 billion	15.01	$785.70 million	$8.00	30.89

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Ntt Data and VeriSign, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Ntt Data	0	0	0	1	4.00
VeriSign	0	0	2	1	3.33

VeriSign has a consensus price target of $262.50, suggesting a potential upside of 6.22%. Given VeriSign’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe VeriSign is more favorable than Ntt Data.

Summary

VeriSign beats Ntt Data on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Ntt Data

NTT DATA Group Corporation provides IT and business services worldwide. It offers cloud, cybersecurity, data and intelligence, salesforce, SAP, ServiceNow, and application development and management, as well as 5G services. The company also provides consulting, industry solutions, business process services, and IT modernization and managed services. It serves automotive, healthcare, life sciences, media, banking, and insurance industries. The company was formerly known as NTT DATA Corporation. NTT DATA Group Corporation was founded in 1988 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. NTT DATA Group Corporation operates as a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce. It operates directory for .name and .cc; and back-end systems for .edu, domain names. VeriSign, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.