Heritage Global (NASDAQ:HGBL) vs. XBP Europe (NASDAQ:XBP) Critical Review

Insider & Institutional Ownership

33.5% of Heritage Global shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 15.7% of XBP Europe shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.8% of Heritage Global shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 82.5% of XBP Europe shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Heritage Global and XBP Europe”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Heritage Global	$60.54 million	1.25	$12.48 million	$0.28	7.25
XBP Europe	$166.57 million	0.23	-$11.05 million	N/A	N/A

Heritage Global has higher earnings, but lower revenue than XBP Europe.

Profitability

This table compares Heritage Global and XBP Europe’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Heritage Global	20.60%	16.05%	11.90%
XBP Europe	-9.50%	N/A	-14.57%

Volatility & Risk

Heritage Global has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, XBP Europe has a beta of -0.25, meaning that its share price is 125% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Heritage Global beats XBP Europe on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Heritage Global

Heritage Global Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an asset services company with focus on financial and industrial asset transactions. The company operates in three segments: Auction and Liquidation, Refurbishment & Resale, and Brokerage. It provides a suite of market making, acquisitions, refurbishment, dispositions, valuations, and secured lending services. The company focuses on identifying, valuing, acquiring, and monetizing underlying tangible assets. It acts as an adviser, as well as a principal, acquiring, or brokering manufacturing facilities; surplus industrial machinery and equipment; industrial inventories; and charged-off receivable portfolios. The company was formerly known as Counsel RB Capital Inc. and changed its name to Heritage Global, Inc. in August 2013. Heritage Global, Inc. was founded in 1937 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

About XBP Europe

XBP Europe Holdings, Inc. provides bills, payments, and related solutions and services in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Bills & Payments and Technology. The Bills & Payments segment focuses on optimizing how bills and payments are processed by businesses of all sizes and industries. This segment also offers automation of accounts payable and accounts receivables processes and seeks to integrate buyers and suppliers, as well as engages in digital transformation business. The Technology segment engages in the sale of recurring software licenses and related maintenance, and hardware solutions, as well as provision of related maintenance and professional services. In addition, the company offers XBP platform that provides a secured network allowing billers, consumers, and businesses to communicate and transact; XBP Omnidirect, a cloud-based platform that provides enterprise level client communication management; and Reaktr.ai for cybersecurity, data modernization and cloud management, and generative AI. Further, it provides request to pay solutions; enterprise information management solutions; robotic process automation solutions; digital mailroom and records digitization solutions; business process management and intelligent workflow automation solutions; integrated communications solution; banking and financial industry solutions and services; cross-border payments; digitization of checks; confirmation of payee; and mortgage and loan management solutions. The company is based in Egham, the United Kingdom. XBP Europe Holdings, Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Exela Technologies, Inc.