Comparing MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) and China Merchants Bank (OTCMKTS:CIHKY)

China Merchants Bank (OTCMKTS:CIHKY) and MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) are both finance companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for China Merchants Bank and MARA, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
China Merchants Bank	0	0	0	0	0.00
MARA	0	6	4	0	2.40

MARA has a consensus price target of $23.78, indicating a potential upside of 72.43%. Given MARA’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe MARA is more favorable than China Merchants Bank.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares China Merchants Bank and MARA”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
China Merchants Bank	$70.40 billion	2.04	$20.71 billion	$3.89	7.32
MARA	$656.38 million	7.13	$261.17 million	$1.36	10.14

China Merchants Bank has higher revenue and earnings than MARA. China Merchants Bank is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than MARA, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares China Merchants Bank and MARA’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
China Merchants Bank	30.16%	13.27%	1.27%
MARA	27.48%	-8.40%	-6.92%

Risk and Volatility

China Merchants Bank has a beta of 0.31, suggesting that its share price is 69% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MARA has a beta of 5.76, suggesting that its share price is 476% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

44.5% of MARA shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of MARA shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

MARA beats China Merchants Bank on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About China Merchants Bank

China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides various banking products and services. It operates through Wholesale Finance Business, Retail Finance Business, and Other Business segments. The company offers current, demand, time, call, savings, notice, and renminbi accounts. Its loan products include personal commercial real estate, consumption, housing, and car loans; loans to finance for studying abroad; micro-business loans; mortgage loans for equipment; joint guarantee, special guarantee, and housing mortgage loan; bank acceptance, discount, liquid capital, and fixed asset loans; and loans for vessels. The company also offers credit cards; insurance products; open-ended funds; discount and guarantees for commercial bills, redemption of commercial bills, and guaranteed discount for commercial acceptance bills; and financial consultation, debt financing underwriting, merger and acquisition financing, and equity financing and enterprise listing services. In addition, it provides forfeiting and risk participation, escrow, cross-border RMB clearing, and interbank services; and risk and financial management, cross-border RMB and oversea financing, international factoring and settlement, and trade finance services. Further, the company offers financial leasing and guarantee, investment and wealth management, forex option and gold trading, forex express trading, international, offshore and private banking, custody, pension, and electronic banking services. The company also operates in Hong Kong, New York, London, Singapore, Luxembourg, Sydney, and Taipei. China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd. was founded in 1987 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China.

About MARA

MARA Holdings, Inc. operates as a digital asset technology company that mines digital assets with a focus on the bitcoin ecosystem in United States. The company was formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to MARA Holdings, Inc. in August 2024. MARA Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.