Critical Review: Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) vs. Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD)

Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD) and Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Applied Digital and Core Scientific’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Applied Digital	-52.84%	-15.91%	-4.62%
Core Scientific	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Applied Digital and Core Scientific”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Applied Digital	$319.26 million	28.22	-$231.07 million	($0.74)	-42.61
Core Scientific	$319.02 million	19.64	$369.25 million	$1.17	16.97

Core Scientific has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Applied Digital. Applied Digital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Core Scientific, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Applied Digital has a beta of 7.25, suggesting that its stock price is 625% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Core Scientific has a beta of 6.34, suggesting that its stock price is 534% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

65.7% of Applied Digital shares are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of Applied Digital shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Core Scientific shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Applied Digital and Core Scientific, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Applied Digital	2	0	11	2	2.87
Core Scientific	2	3	15	1	2.71

Applied Digital presently has a consensus price target of $42.78, suggesting a potential upside of 35.67%. Core Scientific has a consensus price target of $25.07, suggesting a potential upside of 26.32%. Given Applied Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Applied Digital is more favorable than Core Scientific.

Summary

Applied Digital beats Core Scientific on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Applied Digital

Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services. The company was formerly known as Applied Blockchain, Inc. and changed its name to Applied Digital Corporation in November 2022. Applied Digital Corporation is based in Dallas, Texas.

About Core Scientific

Core Scientific, Inc. provides digital asset mining services in North America. It operates through two segments, Mining and Hosting. The company offers blockchain infrastructure, software solutions, and services; and operates data center mining facilities. It also mines digital assets for its own account; and provides hosting services for other large bitcoin miners, which include deployment, monitoring, trouble shooting, optimization, and maintenance of its customers' digital asset mining equipment. In addition, the company provides electrical power, repair, and other infrastructure services to operate, maintain, and earn digital assets; and sells mining equipment to customers. Core Scientific, Inc. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Dover, Delaware.