Critical Analysis: Qudian (NYSE:QD) & Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ)

Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) and Qudian (NYSE:QD) are both finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Core Scientific and Qudian’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Core Scientific	N/A	N/A	N/A
Qudian	-134.42%	-2.35%	-2.21%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings for Core Scientific and Qudian, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Core Scientific	0	0	12	0	3.00
Qudian	0	0	0	0	0.00

Core Scientific presently has a consensus target price of $17.21, indicating a potential upside of 1.46%. Given Core Scientific’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Core Scientific is more favorable than Qudian.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Core Scientific and Qudian”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Core Scientific	$502.40 million	8.72	N/A	N/A	N/A
Qudian	$17.79 million	26.95	$5.51 million	($0.18)	-13.28

Qudian has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Core Scientific.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

8.1% of Qudian shares are owned by institutional investors. 25.7% of Qudian shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Core Scientific beats Qudian on 7 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Core Scientific

Core Scientific, Inc. provides digital asset mining services in North America. It operates through two segments, Mining and Hosting. The company offers blockchain infrastructure, software solutions, and services; and operates data center mining facilities. It also mines digital assets for its own account; and provides hosting services for other large bitcoin miners, which include deployment, monitoring, trouble shooting, optimization, and maintenance of its customers' digital asset mining equipment. In addition, the company provides electrical power, repair, and other infrastructure services to operate, maintain, and earn digital assets; and sells mining equipment to customers. Core Scientific, Inc. was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Dover, Delaware.

About Qudian

Qudian Inc. operates as a consumer-oriented technology company in the People's Republic of China. The company engages in the operation of online platforms to provide small consumer credit products. It also provides technology development and services; research and development services; and delivery services. The company was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Xiamen, the People's Republic of China.