Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) versus CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) Head-To-Head Review

CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) and Burford Capital (NYSE:BUR) are both mid-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for CleanSpark and Burford Capital, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CleanSpark	0	0	7	0	3.00
Burford Capital	0	0	3	0	3.00

CleanSpark currently has a consensus target price of $21.57, suggesting a potential upside of 178.34%. Burford Capital has a consensus target price of $19.50, suggesting a potential upside of 38.05%. Given CleanSpark’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe CleanSpark is more favorable than Burford Capital.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

43.1% of CleanSpark shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of CleanSpark shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Burford Capital shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility and Risk

CleanSpark has a beta of 4.2, indicating that its stock price is 320% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Burford Capital has a beta of 0.44, indicating that its stock price is 56% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares CleanSpark and Burford Capital”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CleanSpark	$467.49 million	4.66	-$145.78 million	$0.11	70.45
Burford Capital	$341.23 million	9.08	$610.52 million	$0.65	21.73

Burford Capital has lower revenue, but higher earnings than CleanSpark. Burford Capital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CleanSpark, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares CleanSpark and Burford Capital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CleanSpark	16.07%	-2.61%	-2.24%
Burford Capital	34.81%	8.07%	4.28%

Summary

CleanSpark beats Burford Capital on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CleanSpark

CleanSpark, Inc. operates as a bitcoin miner in the Americas. It owns and operates data centers that primarily run on low-carbon power. Its infrastructure supports Bitcoin, a digital commodity and a tool for financial independence and inclusion. The company was formerly known as Stratean Inc. and changed its name to CleanSpark, Inc. in November 2016. CleanSpark, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Henderson, Nevada.

About Burford Capital

Burford Capital Limited provides legal finance products and services worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Capital Provision, and Asset Management and Other Provision. The Capital Provision segment provides capital to the legal industry or in connection with legal matters directly and through investment in private funds; legal risk management services; lower risk legal finance business focusing on pre-settlement litigation matters with lower risk and lower expected returns; post-settlement finance; and complex strategies in which it acts as a principal and acquires assets that are mispriced. The Asset Management and Other Services segment provides services to the legal industry, including litigation insurance. Burford Capital Limited was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey.