Comparing Agora (NASDAQ:API) and Xunlei (NASDAQ:XNET)

Xunlei (NASDAQ:XNET) and Agora (NASDAQ:API) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Volatility & Risk

Xunlei has a beta of 1.14, suggesting that its stock price is 14% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Agora has a beta of -0.01, suggesting that its stock price is 101% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Xunlei and Agora’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Xunlei	4.52%	4.47%	3.10%
Agora	-31.69%	-7.32%	-6.47%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

5.1% of Xunlei shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 40.4% of Agora shares are held by institutional investors. 21.7% of Xunlei shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 14.6% of Agora shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Xunlei and Agora, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Xunlei	0	0	0	0	N/A
Agora	0	1	0	0	2.00

Agora has a consensus target price of $2.63, suggesting a potential upside of 9.13%. Given Agora’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Agora is more favorable than Xunlei.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Xunlei and Agora”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Xunlei	$344.79 million	0.34	$14.23 million	$0.27	6.78
Agora	$138.29 million	1.61	-$87.22 million	($0.81)	-2.98

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

Summary

Xunlei beats Agora on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Xunlei

Xunlei Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates an internet platform for digital media content in the People's Republic of China. Its platform is based on cloud technology that enables users to access, store, manage, and consume digital media content. The company offers Xunlei Accelerator, which enables users to accelerate digital transmission over the internet; mobile acceleration plug-in, which provides mobile device users with benefits of download speed acceleration and download success rate improvements; and subscription services that offer users premium services through Green Channel and Fast Bird products. It also provides Mobile Xunlei, a mobile application that allows users to search, download, consume, and store digital media content; Xunlei Media Player, which supports online and offline play of digital media content, as well as simultaneous play of digital media content while it is being transmitted by Xunlei Accelerator; online games through online game website and mobile app; advertising services; live streaming products, including video and audio livestreaming; and develops software and computer software, as well as other internet value-added services. In addition, the company offers cloud computing services through OneThing Cloud, and StellarCloud; and hardware for edging computing, such as OneThing Edge Cube, and OneThing Edge Atom. Further it offers ThunderChain, a blockchain infrastructure product that enables its users to develop and manage blockchain applications. The company was formerly known as Giganology Limited and changed its name to Xunlei Limited in January 2011. Xunlei Limited was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, the People's Republic of China.

About Agora

Agora, Inc. operates in real-time engagement technology business in the People's Republic of China, the United States, and internationally. The company offers real-time engagement platform-as-a-services providing developers with application programming interfaces to embed real-time voice, video, interactive live-streaming, chat, whiteboard, and artificial intelligence capabilities into their applications. It also provides video and voice calling, interactive live and broadcast streaming, chat, signaling, and interactive whiteboard products; and extensions, such as analytics, recording, AI noise suppression, 3D spatial audio, real-time transcription, and extensions marketplace. In addition, the company offers Application Platforms, including Flexible Classroom, a low-code application Platform as a Service, which combines video, voice, chat, signaling, whiteboard and recording functionalities into an integrated cloud-based solution for education providers; and App Builder, a no-code application platform, designed for developers with little or no coding experience to build their own applications with video conference and live streaming functionalities. It operates through Agora and Shengwang brands. Agora, Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.