Critical Review: VIQ Solutions (OTCMKTS:VQSLF) & Commerce.com (NASDAQ:CMRC)

Commerce.com (NASDAQ:CMRC) and VIQ Solutions (OTCMKTS:VQSLF) are both small-cap services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Commerce.com and VIQ Solutions, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Commerce.com	2	2	2	0	2.00
VIQ Solutions	0	0	0	0	0.00

Commerce.com currently has a consensus price target of $8.30, indicating a potential upside of 67.68%. Given Commerce.com’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Commerce.com is more favorable than VIQ Solutions.

Volatility & Risk

Commerce.com has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its stock price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VIQ Solutions has a beta of -1.16, suggesting that its stock price is 216% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

79.2% of Commerce.com shares are held by institutional investors. 9.1% of Commerce.com shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Commerce.com and VIQ Solutions”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Commerce.com	$332.93 million	1.20	-$27.03 million	($0.22)	-22.50
VIQ Solutions	$31.75 million	0.00	-$11.15 million	($0.50)	N/A

VIQ Solutions has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Commerce.com. Commerce.com is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than VIQ Solutions, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Commerce.com and VIQ Solutions’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Commerce.com	-5.37%	-25.13%	-2.77%
VIQ Solutions	-20.94%	-32.42%	-11.67%

Summary

Commerce.com beats VIQ Solutions on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Commerce.com

BigCommerce Holdings, Inc. operates a software-as-a-service platform for small businesses, mid-markets, and large enterprises in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company’s platform provides various services for launching and scaling e-commerce operation, including store design, catalog management, hosting, checkout, order management, reporting, and pre-integrations. As of December 31, 2021, it served approximately 60,000 online stores across industries. BigCommerce Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About VIQ Solutions

VIQ Solutions Inc. operates as a technology and service platform provider for digital evidence capture, retrieval, and content management in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. It operates in two segments, Technology and Related Revenue, and Technology Services. The Technology segment develops, distributes, and licenses computer-based digital solutions based on its technology. The Technology Services segment provides recording and transcription services. The company offers CapturePro that securely speeds the capture, creation, and management of large volumes of information, as well as preserves and secures the spoken word and video image, and delivers data; MobileMic Pro for capturing and managing incident reports, recorded statements, case notes, and other vital information; NetScribe, a speech-to-text engine to consolidate, accelerate, and optimize transcription workflows; and aiAssist, a multi-tenant workflow and analysis platform to manage, convert, and analyze large volumes of audio and visual content. It also provides legal, criminal justice, insurance, government, corporate finance, and media transcription services. The company was incorporated in 2004 and is based in Mississauga, Canada.