VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) & Decision Diagnostics (OTCMKTS:DECN) Critical Survey

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) and Decision Diagnostics (OTCMKTS:DECN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Risk and Volatility

VeriSign has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Decision Diagnostics has a beta of -1.77, suggesting that its share price is 277% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares VeriSign and Decision Diagnostics”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
VeriSign	$1.56 billion	14.00	$785.70 million	$8.00	28.80
Decision Diagnostics	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

VeriSign has higher revenue and earnings than Decision Diagnostics.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.9% of VeriSign shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of VeriSign shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares VeriSign and Decision Diagnostics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VeriSign	50.47%	-43.01%	51.54%
Decision Diagnostics	N/A	N/A	N/A

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for VeriSign and Decision Diagnostics, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
VeriSign	0	0	2	1	3.33
Decision Diagnostics	0	0	0	0	0.00

VeriSign presently has a consensus price target of $250.00, indicating a potential upside of 8.49%. Given VeriSign’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe VeriSign is more favorable than Decision Diagnostics.

Summary

VeriSign beats Decision Diagnostics on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce. It operates directory for .name and .cc; and back-end systems for .edu, domain names. VeriSign, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.

About Decision Diagnostics

Decision Diagnostics Corp. develops smart phone based electronic medical record (EMR) technologies. The company offers prescription and non-prescription diagnostics; home testing products for the chronically ill; fulfillment services to direct to patient diabetes programs; and cell phone centric e-health products and technologies development services. It manufactures and distributes GenUltimate! glucose test strips, a Class II medical device for at-home use for the measurement of glucose; PetSure! glucose test strip for the glucose testing of dogs and cats designed to work with the Zoetis AlphaTrak and AlphaTrak II glucometers, a legacy meter; GenUltimate! 4Pets Glucose system, a proprietary glucose measuring system, including GenUltimate! 4Pets test strip and Avantage meter, for the testing of dogs, cats, and horses; and GenUltimate! Sure and GenUltimate! Precis test strips. In addition, it engages in the acquisition and holding of intellectual property including patents and trademarks and specialty manufacturing equipment. Further, the company also provides MD@Hand, an inpatient/outpatient management suite; Practice Probe, a data mining utility used to extract information from the physician's practice management system; and ResidenceWare, a residential management system that facilitates the relay of information from commercial and residential real estate management companies to occupying tenants using networking software systems and applications. Its EMR technologies are used by physicians at the point of care. The company was formerly known as InstaCare Corp. and changed its name to Decision Diagnostics Corp. in November 2011. Decision Diagnostics Corp. was founded in 2000 and is based in Westlake Village, California.