Upbound Group (NASDAQ:UPBD – Get Free Report) and LendingTree (NASDAQ:TREE – Get Free Report) are both small-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Upbound Group and LendingTree, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Upbound Group | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2.25 |
| LendingTree | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2.71 |
Upbound Group presently has a consensus target price of $27.50, indicating a potential upside of 67.99%. LendingTree has a consensus target price of $61.33, indicating a potential upside of 141.56%. Given LendingTree’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe LendingTree is more favorable than Upbound Group.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Upbound Group and LendingTree”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Upbound Group | $4.70 billion | 0.20 | $73.24 million | $1.54 | 10.63 |
| LendingTree | $1.12 billion | 0.32 | $151.31 million | $12.90 | 1.97 |
LendingTree has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Upbound Group. LendingTree is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Upbound Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
90.3% of Upbound Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.3% of LendingTree shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Upbound Group shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.0% of LendingTree shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares Upbound Group and LendingTree’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Upbound Group | 1.90% | 34.53% | 7.69% |
| LendingTree | 14.33% | 14.57% | 4.49% |
Volatility & Risk
Upbound Group has a beta of 1.78, meaning that its stock price is 78% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LendingTree has a beta of 2.04, meaning that its stock price is 104% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
LendingTree beats Upbound Group on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Upbound Group
Upbound Group, Inc. leases household durable goods to customers on a lease-to-own basis in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. It operates through four segments: Rent-A-Center, Acima, Mexico, and Franchising. The company's brands, such as Rent-A-Center and Acima that facilitate consumer transactions across a range of store-based and virtual channels. It offers furniture comprising mattresses, tires, consumer electronics, appliances, tools, handbags, computers, smartphones, and accessories. It also provides merchandise on an installment sales basis; and the lease-to-own transaction to consumers who do not qualify for traditional financing, the lease to-own transaction through staffed or unstaffed kiosks located in third-party retailer's locations, and other virtual options. It operates retail installment sales stores under the Get It Now and Home Choice names; lease-to-own and franchised lease-to-own stores under the Rent-A-Centre, ColorTyme, and RimTyme names; and company-owned stores and e-commerce platform through rentacenter.com. The company was formerly known as Rent-A-Center, Inc. and changed its name to Upbound Group, Inc. in February 2023. Upbound Group, Inc. was founded in 1960 and is based in Plano, Texas.
About LendingTree
LendingTree, Inc., through its subsidiary, operates online consumer platform in the United States. It operates through three segments: Home, Consumer, and Insurance. The Home segment offers purchase mortgage, refinance mortgage, and home equity loans and lines of credit; and real estate brokerage services. The Consumer segment provides credit cards; personal, small business, student, and auto loans; deposit accounts; and other credit products, such as debt settlement services. The Insurance segment includes information, tools, and access to insurance quote products, including home, automobile, and health and Medicare through which consumers are matched with insurance lead aggregators to obtain insurance offers and policies. In addition, the company offers QuoteWizard, a marketplace for insurance comparison; ValuePenguin, a personal finance website that offers consumers objective analysis on various financial topics from insurance to credit cards; and Stash, a consumer investing and banking platform that offers a suite of personal investment accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs, custodial investment accounts, and banking services, including checking accounts and debit cards with a Stock-Back rewards program. The company was formerly known as Tree.com, Inc. and changed its name to LendingTree, Inc. in January 2015. LendingTree, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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