Critical Survey: Soluna (NASDAQ:SLNH) versus CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK)

CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) and Soluna (NASDAQ:SLNH) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

CleanSpark has a beta of 4.18, suggesting that its stock price is 318% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Soluna has a beta of 2.94, suggesting that its stock price is 194% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for CleanSpark and Soluna, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CleanSpark	0	1	6	0	2.86
Soluna	0	0	0	0	N/A

CleanSpark presently has a consensus target price of $19.11, indicating a potential upside of 48.63%. Given CleanSpark’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe CleanSpark is more favorable than Soluna.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares CleanSpark and Soluna”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CleanSpark	$342.81 million	8.55	-$136.59 million	N/A	N/A
Soluna	$38.14 million	0.43	-$29.20 million	($23.20)	-0.18

Soluna has lower revenue, but higher earnings than CleanSpark.

Profitability

This table compares CleanSpark and Soluna’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CleanSpark	-46.31%	-3.64%	-3.39%
Soluna	-77.32%	-43.44%	-24.06%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

43.1% of CleanSpark shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 23.2% of Soluna shares are held by institutional investors. 3.5% of CleanSpark shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 22.0% of Soluna shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

CleanSpark beats Soluna on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CleanSpark

CleanSpark, Inc. operates as a bitcoin miner in the Americas. It owns and operates data centers that primarily run on low-carbon power. Its infrastructure supports Bitcoin, a digital commodity and a tool for financial independence and inclusion. The company was formerly known as Stratean Inc. and changed its name to CleanSpark, Inc. in November 2016. CleanSpark, Inc. was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Henderson, Nevada.

About Soluna

Soluna Holdings, Inc. together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mining of cryptocurrency through data centers. It operates through two segments, Cryptocurrency Mining and Data Center Hosting. The company also operates in the blockchain business. In addition, the company develops and builds modular data centers that use for cryptocurrency mining. Further, it provides data center hosting services, including electrical power and network connectivity to cryptocurrency mining customers. The company was formerly known as Mechanical Technology Inc and as changed to Soluna Holdings, Inc. Soluna Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is headquartered in Albany, New York.