Head-To-Head Review: Sphere 3D (NASDAQ:ANY) and Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR)

Cipher Mining (NASDAQ:CIFR) and Sphere 3D (NASDAQ:ANY) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

Cipher Mining has a beta of 2.24, suggesting that its stock price is 124% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sphere 3D has a beta of 2.81, suggesting that its stock price is 181% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Cipher Mining and Sphere 3D’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cipher Mining	11.43%	3.41%	2.98%
Sphere 3D	-69.64%	-67.44%	-42.23%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cipher Mining and Sphere 3D’s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cipher Mining	$158.67 million	5.28	-$25.78 million	$0.06	45.00
Sphere 3D	$21.91 million	0.67	-$23.41 million	($1.85)	-0.38

Sphere 3D has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Cipher Mining. Sphere 3D is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cipher Mining, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

12.3% of Cipher Mining shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 17.3% of Sphere 3D shares are held by institutional investors. 2.3% of Cipher Mining shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.6% of Sphere 3D shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Cipher Mining and Sphere 3D, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cipher Mining	0	1	6	1	3.00
Sphere 3D	0	0	1	0	3.00

Cipher Mining currently has a consensus price target of $7.42, suggesting a potential upside of 174.69%. Sphere 3D has a consensus price target of $3.00, suggesting a potential upside of 322.06%. Given Sphere 3D’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sphere 3D is more favorable than Cipher Mining.

Summary

Cipher Mining beats Sphere 3D on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cipher Mining

Cipher Mining Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the development and operation of industrial scale bitcoin mining data centers in the United States. The company was incorporated in 2020 and is based in New York, New York. Cipher Mining Inc. operates as a subsidiary of Bitfury Holding B.V.

About Sphere 3D

Sphere 3D Corp. engages in the bitcoin mining business. It is involved with digital asset mining pool operators to provide computing power to the mining pools. The company is based in Stamford, Connecticut.