Acuity (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) and LiveRamp (NYSE:RAMP – Get Free Report) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
98.2% of Acuity shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.8% of LiveRamp shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.9% of Acuity shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.3% of LiveRamp shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares Acuity and LiveRamp”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Acuity | $4.35 billion | 2.29 | $396.60 million | $15.08 | 22.01 |
| LiveRamp | $812.94 million | 2.84 | $145.95 million | $2.28 | 16.65 |
Acuity has higher revenue and earnings than LiveRamp. LiveRamp is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acuity, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Acuity and LiveRamp, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Acuity | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 2.56 |
| LiveRamp | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 2.25 |
Acuity presently has a consensus target price of $397.17, suggesting a potential upside of 19.68%. LiveRamp has a consensus target price of $40.21, suggesting a potential upside of 5.95%. Given Acuity’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Acuity is more favorable than LiveRamp.
Volatility & Risk
Acuity has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LiveRamp has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Acuity and LiveRamp’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Acuity | 10.25% | 20.26% | 12.21% |
| LiveRamp | 17.95% | 8.28% | 6.29% |
Summary
Acuity beats LiveRamp on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Acuity
Acuity Brands, Inc. provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch. This segment serves electrical distributors, retail home improvement centers, electric utilities, national accounts, original equipment manufacturers, digital retailers, lighting showrooms, and energy service companies. The ISG segment offers building management solutions, such as products for controlling heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, shades, refrigeration, and building access that deliver end-to-end optimization of those building systems; and building management software that enhances building system management and automates labor intensive tasks. This segment serves system integrators, as well as retail stores, airports, and enterprise campuses. The company offers its products and solutions under the Atrius, Distech Controls, and KE2 Therm Solutions brands. Acuity Brands, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
About LiveRamp
LiveRamp Holdings, Inc., a technology company, operates a data collaboration platform in the United States, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company operates LiveRamp Data Collaboration platform enables an organization to unify customer and prospect data to build a single view of the customer in a way that protects consumer privacy. Its platform supports various people-based marketing solutions, including data collaboration, activation, measurement and analytics, identity, and data marketplace. The company sells its solutions to enterprise marketers, agencies, marketing technology providers, publishers, and data providers in various industry verticals, such as financial, insurance and investment services, retail, automotive, telecommunications, high tech, consumer packaged goods, healthcare, travel, entertainment, and non-profit. The company was formerly known as Acxiom Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. in October 2018. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
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