Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) & ARTISTdirect (OTCMKTS:ARTD) Critical Review

ARTISTdirect (OTCMKTS:ARTD) and Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) are both retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability and risk.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares ARTISTdirect and Sezzle”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ARTISTdirect	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sezzle	$221.81 million	6.27	$7.10 million	$9.40	26.40

Sezzle has higher revenue and earnings than ARTISTdirect.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for ARTISTdirect and Sezzle, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ARTISTdirect	0	0	0	0	0.00
Sezzle	0	0	2	1	3.33

Sezzle has a consensus target price of $366.00, suggesting a potential upside of 47.51%. Given Sezzle’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sezzle is more favorable than ARTISTdirect.

Profitability

This table compares ARTISTdirect and Sezzle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ARTISTdirect	N/A	N/A	N/A
Sezzle	25.29%	101.18%	18.90%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

2.0% of Sezzle shares are owned by institutional investors. 57.7% of Sezzle shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Sezzle beats ARTISTdirect on 10 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ARTISTdirect

ARTISTdirect, Inc. operates an online platform that provides music and recorded labels. It offers multi-media content, music news and information, online fan communities, music related commerce, and digital music services. The company also provides iMusic record labels of rock and urban music. ARTISTdirect, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is based in Santa Monica, California.

About Sezzle

Sezzle Inc. operates as a technology-enabled payments company primarily in the United States and Canada. The company provides payment solution in-store and at online retail stores; and through proprietary payments solution that connects consumers with merchants. It also offers Sezzle Platform that provides a payments solution for consumers that extends credit at the point-of-sale allowing consumers to purchase and receive the ordered merchandise at the time of sale while paying in installments over time; Pay-in-Four, which allows consumers to pay a fourth of the purchase price up front and then another fourth of the purchase price every two weeks thereafter over a total of six weeks; Pay-in-Full that allows consumers to pay for the full value of their order up-front through the Sezzle Platform without the extension of credit; and Pay-in-Two and other alternative installment options, which allow consumer to pay half of the value of their order up-front and the second half in two weeks. In addition, the company provides Sezzle Virtual Card that allows consumers to access the Sezzle Platform in the form of close-end installment loans and shop with merchants that are not integrated with Sezzle; Sezzle Anywhere, a paid subscription service that allows consumers to use their Sezzle Virtual Card at any merchant online or in-store; Sezzle Premium, a paid subscription service that allows its consumers to access large, non-integrated premium merchants; and Sezzle Up, an opt-in feature of the Sezzle Platform. Further, it offers Long-Term Lending through collaboration with third-party lenders and Product Innovation. Sezzle Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.