Head-To-Head Review: Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) & Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL)

Research Solutions (NASDAQ:RSSS) and Sezzle (NASDAQ:SEZL) are both small-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Research Solutions and Sezzle, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Research Solutions	0	0	3	0	3.00
Sezzle	0	0	0	0	N/A

Research Solutions presently has a consensus price target of $4.78, suggesting a potential upside of 57.09%. Given Research Solutions’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Research Solutions is more favorable than Sezzle.

Profitability

This table compares Research Solutions and Sezzle’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Research Solutions	-1.05%	-4.96%	-1.63%
Sezzle	4.45%	40.56%	4.05%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Research Solutions and Sezzle’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Research Solutions	$37.70 million	2.63	$570,000.00	($0.02)	-152.25
Sezzle	$159.36 million	2.10	$7.10 million	$1.25	47.19

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

33.6% of Research Solutions shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.0% of Sezzle shares are held by institutional investors. 26.5% of Research Solutions shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Sezzle beats Research Solutions on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Research Solutions

Research Solutions, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based software-as-a-service research platform. The company is also involved in the transactional sale of published scientific, technical, and medical (STM) content managed, sourced, and delivered through the Transactions platform. Its solutions enable life science and other research intensive organizations to accelerate their research and development activities with access and management STM articles used throughout the intellectual property development lifecycle. The company was formerly known as Derycz Scientific, Inc. and changed its name to Research Solutions, Inc. in March 2013. Research Solutions, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Henderson, Nevada.

About Sezzle

Sezzle Inc. operates as a technology-enabled payments company primarily in the United States and Canada. The company provides payment solution in-store and at online retail stores; and through proprietary payments solution that connects consumers with merchants. It also offers Sezzle Platform that provides a payments solution for consumers that extends credit at the point-of-sale allowing consumers to purchase and receive the ordered merchandise at the time of sale while paying in installments over time; Pay-in-Four, which allows consumers to pay a fourth of the purchase price up front and then another fourth of the purchase price every two weeks thereafter over a total of six weeks; Pay-in-Full that allows consumers to pay for the full value of their order up-front through the Sezzle Platform without the extension of credit; and Pay-in-Two and other alternative installment options, which allow consumer to pay half of the value of their order up-front and the second half in two weeks. In addition, the company provides Sezzle Virtual Card that allows consumers to access the Sezzle Platform in the form of close-end installment loans and shop with merchants that are not integrated with Sezzle; Sezzle Anywhere, a paid subscription service that allows consumers to use their Sezzle Virtual Card at any merchant online or in-store; Sezzle Premium, a paid subscription service that allows its consumers to access large, non-integrated premium merchants; and Sezzle Up, an opt-in feature of the Sezzle Platform. Further, it offers Long-Term Lending through collaboration with third-party lenders and Product Innovation. Sezzle Inc. was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.