Financial Review: CEVA (NASDAQ:CEVA) & Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP)

CEVA (NASDAQ:CEVA) and Sound Group (NASDAQ:SOGP) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and dividends.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

85.4% of CEVA shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 1.6% of Sound Group shares are held by institutional investors. 2.4% of CEVA shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 25.2% of Sound Group shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

CEVA has a beta of 1.19, meaning that its share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sound Group has a beta of 1.69, meaning that its share price is 69% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for CEVA and Sound Group, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CEVA	0	0	4	0	3.00
Sound Group	0	0	0	0	N/A

CEVA presently has a consensus target price of $28.50, indicating a potential upside of 13.14%. Given CEVA’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe CEVA is more favorable than Sound Group.

Profitability

This table compares CEVA and Sound Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CEVA	-7.02%	-3.77%	-3.28%
Sound Group	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CEVA and Sound Group”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CEVA	$98.74 million	6.02	-$11.88 million	($0.53)	-47.53
Sound Group	$2.24 billion	0.00	$12.54 million	$0.99	2.06

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

Summary

Sound Group beats CEVA on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CEVA

CEVA, Inc. provides silicon and software IP solutions to semiconductor and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) companies worldwide. Its 5G mobile and infrastructure products include Ceva-XC vector digital signal processors (DSPs) for 5G handsets, 5G RAN, and general-purpose baseband processing; PentaG-RAN, an open ran platform for base station and radio; and PentaG2 – 5G NR modem platform for UE, as well as for non-handset 5G vertical markets, such as fixed wireless access, industry 4.0, robotics, and AR/VR devices. The company’s wireless IoT products comprise RivieraWaves’ Bluetooth 5dual mode and low energy platforms, RivieraWaves’ Wi-Fi platforms, ultra-wide band platforms, and Cellular IoT and RedCap platforms, as well as sense and inference processors and platforms consist of NeuPro-M neural processing unit (NPU) family; SensPro2 sensor hub AI platforms addressing imaging, vision, powertrain, and applications, including DSP processors, AI accelerators, and a software portfolio; and Ceva-BX1 and Ceva-BX2 audio AI DSPs. Its sensing and audio software comprise RealSpace spatial audio software package; WhisPro speech recognition; ClearVox, a voice front-end software package for voice-enabled devices; and CDNN, a neural network graph compiler that enables AI developers to automatically compile, optimize, and run pre-trained networks onto embedded devices. The company’s application software IP are licensed primarily to OEMs who embed it in their system on chip designs. It delivers AI DSPs and NPUs in the form of a hardware description language definition; and offers development platforms, software development kits, and software debug tools, which facilitate system design, debug, and software development. The company licenses its technology through a direct sales force. CEVA, Inc. was formerly known as ParthusCeva, Inc. and changed its name to CEVA, Inc. in December 2003. The company was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.

About Sound Group

Sound Group Inc. operates as an audio-centric social and entertainment company. It focuses on building audio platform to connect and communicate. The company, through its product portfolio and in-house technologies, caters to user interest in audio entertainment and social networking. The company was formerly known as LIZHI INC. and changed its name to Sound Group Inc. in January 2024. Sound Group Inc. was founded in 2010 and is based in Singapore.