Critical Contrast: Orbital Tracking (OTCMKTS:TRKK) and Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN)

Orbital Tracking (OTCMKTS:TRKK) and Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Orbital Tracking and Lumen Technologies’ gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Orbital Tracking	$5.73 million	0.33	-$1.20 million	($1.33)	-0.79
Lumen Technologies	$14.56 billion	0.08	-$10.30 billion	($10.93)	-0.11

Orbital Tracking has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Lumen Technologies. Orbital Tracking is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Lumen Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Orbital Tracking and Lumen Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Orbital Tracking	-31.38%	-116.51%	-62.65%
Lumen Technologies	-76.21%	4.06%	0.16%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

66.2% of Lumen Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. 15.6% of Orbital Tracking shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Lumen Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Orbital Tracking has a beta of 3.27, indicating that its share price is 227% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lumen Technologies has a beta of 1.15, indicating that its share price is 15% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Orbital Tracking and Lumen Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Orbital Tracking	0	0	0	0	N/A
Lumen Technologies	2	2	0	0	1.50

Lumen Technologies has a consensus target price of $1.64, suggesting a potential upside of 41.16%. Given Lumen Technologies’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Lumen Technologies is more favorable than Orbital Tracking.

About Orbital Tracking

Orbital Tracking Corp., through its subsidiaries, develops, distributes, and resells satellite enabled communications hardware; and provides products, airtime, and related services to customers in the United States and internationally. The company also provides equipment and airtime for use on various satellite networks, as well as short-term rental service for customers who want to use its equipment for a limited time period. In addition, it offers a range of portable satellite voice, data, and tracking solutions, including handheld satellite phones, personal and asset tracking devices, portable high speed broadband terminals, satellite Wi-Fi hotspots. Further, the company provides two-way voice and data transmissions services, as well as prepaid and monthly contract satellite communications airtime options. Additionally, it operates mapping and tracking portals orbitaltrack.com and gtctrack.com, which display real-time asset location reports, including position, speed, altitude, and heading, as well as past location and movement history reports on various tracking devices. The company is also developing a dual-mode tracker utilizes both cellular and satellite technology to provide tracking, automatically switching between the cellular and satellite links for use in populated and remote areas, including trans-oceanic routes. It serves customers, including businesses, U.S. and foreign governments, non-governmental and charitable organizations, military users, resellers, and private individuals. The company was formerly known as Great West Resources, Inc. and changed its name to Orbital Tracking Corp. in January 2015. Orbital Tracking Corp. was incorporated in 1997 and is based in Aventura, Florida.

About Lumen Technologies

Lumen Technologies, Inc., a facilities-based technology and communications company, provides various integrated products and services to business and residential customers in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Business and Mass Markets. It offers dark fiber, edge cloud services, internet protocol, managed security, software-defined wide area networks, secure access service edge, unified communications and collaboration, and optical wavelengths services; ethernet and VPN data networks services; and legacy services to manage cash flow, including time division multiplexing voice, private line, and other legacy services, as well as sells communication equipment, and IT solutions. The company also provides high speed and lower speed broadband service to residential and small business customers; local and long-distance voice services, professional services, and other ancillary services; and federal broadband and state support programs. It serves its products and services under the Lumen, Quantum Fiber, and CenturyLink brands. The company was formerly known as CenturyLink, Inc. and changed its name to Lumen Technologies, Inc. in September 2020. Lumen Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1968 and is headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana.