Reviewing Creative Realities (NASDAQ:CREX) and VerifyMe (NASDAQ:VRME)

VerifyMe (NASDAQ:VRME) and Creative Realities (NASDAQ:CREX) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for VerifyMe and Creative Realities, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
VerifyMe	0	0	2	0	3.00
Creative Realities	0	0	1	0	3.00

VerifyMe presently has a consensus target price of $2.85, indicating a potential upside of 117.56%. Creative Realities has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential upside of 85.61%. Given VerifyMe’s higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe VerifyMe is more favorable than Creative Realities.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

8.8% of VerifyMe shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.3% of Creative Realities shares are held by institutional investors. 24.1% of VerifyMe shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 16.9% of Creative Realities shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

VerifyMe has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Creative Realities has a beta of 3.29, indicating that its share price is 229% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares VerifyMe and Creative Realities’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
VerifyMe	$25.31 million	0.53	-$3.39 million	($0.23)	-5.70
Creative Realities	$45.17 million	1.00	-$2.94 million	($0.21)	-20.52

Creative Realities has higher revenue and earnings than VerifyMe. Creative Realities is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than VerifyMe, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares VerifyMe and Creative Realities’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VerifyMe	-9.30%	-16.79%	-10.89%
Creative Realities	-4.31%	-2.74%	-1.09%

Summary

Creative Realities beats VerifyMe on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About VerifyMe

VerifyMe, Inc., together with its subsidiary, PeriShip Global, LLC, operates as a technology solutions provider that specializes in products to connect brands with consumers and providing brands with end-to-end logistics management for their products. The company operates through two segments, VerifyMe Solutions and PeriShip Global Solutions. The VerifyMe Solutions segment offers technology solutions to connect brands with consumers allowing brand owners to gather business intelligence while engaging directly with their consumers. Its solutions provide brand protection and supply chain functions, such as counterfeit prevention, traceability, consumer engagement solutions, and authentication for labels, packaging, and products, as well as tamper-proof labels. The PeriShip Global Solutions segment offers predictive analytics for optimizing delivery of time and temperature sensitive perishable products. This segment's products include PeriTrack customer dashboard, an integrated web portal tool gives its customers an in-depth look at their shipping activities based on real-time data. It also provides call center, pre-transit, post-delivery, and weather/traffic services. The company has a strategic partnership with INX International Ink Company. The company was formerly known as LaserLock Technologies, Inc. and changed its name to VerifyMe, Inc. in July 2015. VerifyMe, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida.

About Creative Realities

Creative Realities, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides digital marketing technology and solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers digital signage and media solutions to enhance communications in a wide-ranging variety of out-of-home environments. The company's solutions include digital merchandising systems and omni-channel customer engagement systems; interactive digital shopping assistants; advisors and kiosks; and other interactive marketing technologies, such as mobile, social media, point-of-sale transactions, beaconing, and web-based media that enables its customers to engage with their consumers. It also provides hardware system design/engineering, hardware installation, content development, content scheduling, post-deployment network and field support, and media sales, as well as media management and distribution software platforms and networks; device and product management; and customized software service layers, systems, experiences, workflows, and integrated solutions. The company sells its solutions to the automotive, retail, digital out of home comprising advertising networks and retail media networks, foodservice/quick-serve restaurants, financial services, gaming, and sports and entertainment venues. Creative Realities, Inc. is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.