Reviewing Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK) and Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN)

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) and Argo Blockchain (NASDAQ:ARBK) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings and institutional ownership.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

68.8% of Coinbase Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.4% of Argo Blockchain shares are owned by institutional investors. 23.4% of Coinbase Global shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Coinbase Global and Argo Blockchain, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coinbase Global	2	7	9	0	2.39
Argo Blockchain	0	2	1	0	2.33

Coinbase Global presently has a consensus target price of $237.50, suggesting a potential upside of 0.45%. Argo Blockchain has a consensus target price of $2.23, suggesting a potential upside of 45.02%. Given Argo Blockchain’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Argo Blockchain is more favorable than Coinbase Global.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Coinbase Global and Argo Blockchain’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coinbase Global	$3.11 billion	18.65	$94.87 million	$5.01	47.13
Argo Blockchain	$50.56 million	1.76	-$35.03 million	($0.47)	-3.28

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

Profitability

This table compares Coinbase Global and Argo Blockchain’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coinbase Global	33.98%	9.42%	0.30%
Argo Blockchain	-54.06%	-4,172.69%	-35.97%

Risk & Volatility

Coinbase Global has a beta of 3.4, indicating that its stock price is 240% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Argo Blockchain has a beta of 1.9, indicating that its stock price is 90% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Coinbase Global beats Argo Blockchain on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coinbase Global

Coinbase Global, Inc. provides financial infrastructure and technology for the crypto economy in the United States and internationally. The company offers the primary financial account in the crypto economy for consumers; and a marketplace with a pool of liquidity for transacting in crypto assets for institutions. It also provides technology and services that enable developers to build crypto products and securely accept crypto assets as payment. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in Wilmington, Delaware.

About Argo Blockchain

Argo Blockchain plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies mining business worldwide. It engages in mining purpose-built computers for complex cryptographic algorithms. The company was formerly known as GoSun Blockchain Limited and changed its name to Argo Blockchain plc in December 2017. Argo Blockchain plc was incorporated in 2017 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.