Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) vs. Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) Head-To-Head Contrast

Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) and Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Cipher Mining and Green Dot, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cipher Mining	0	0	7	2	3.22
Green Dot	1	2	1	0	2.00

Cipher Mining currently has a consensus price target of $7.36, suggesting a potential upside of 45.98%. Green Dot has a consensus price target of $10.75, suggesting a potential downside of 6.20%. Given Cipher Mining’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Cipher Mining is more favorable than Green Dot.

Profitability

This table compares Cipher Mining and Green Dot’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cipher Mining	-33.39%	-8.57%	-7.57%
Green Dot	-3.41%	4.01%	0.67%

Risk & Volatility

Cipher Mining has a beta of 2.18, suggesting that its share price is 118% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Green Dot has a beta of 0.91, suggesting that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

12.3% of Cipher Mining shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.6% of Green Dot shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of Cipher Mining shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Green Dot shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cipher Mining and Green Dot”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cipher Mining	$158.67 million	10.65	-$25.78 million	($0.13)	-38.77
Green Dot	$1.58 billion	0.39	$6.72 million	($1.02)	-11.24

Green Dot has higher revenue and earnings than Cipher Mining. Cipher Mining is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Green Dot, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Cipher Mining beats Green Dot on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cipher Mining

Cipher Mining Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and operation of industrial scale bitcoin mining data centers in the United States. The company was incorporated in 2020 and is based in New York, New York. Cipher Mining Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Bitfury Holding B.V.

About Green Dot

Green Dot Corporation, a financial technology and registered bank holding company, provides various financial services to consumers and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer Services, Business to Business Services, and Money Movement Services. The company provides deposit account programs, including consumer and small business checking account products, network-branded reloadable prepaid debit cards and gift cards, and secured credit programs. It offers money processing services, such as cash transfer services that enable consumers to deposit or pick up cash and pay bills with cash at the point-of-sale at any participating retailer; and simply paid disbursement services, which enable wages and authorized funds disbursement to its deposit account programs and accounts issued by any third-party bank or program manager. In addition, the company offers tax processing services comprising tax refund transfers, which provide the processing technology to facilitate receipt of a taxpayers' refund proceeds; small business lending to independent tax preparation providers that seek small advances; and fast cash advance, a loan that enables tax refund recipients. Green Dot Corporation was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.