PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) and Nuance Communications (NASDAQ:NUAN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
83.2% of PagerDuty shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.9% of Nuance Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 12.6% of PagerDuty shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Nuance Communications shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for PagerDuty and Nuance Communications, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
---|
PagerDuty | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 2.64 |
Nuance Communications | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2.75 |
PagerDuty currently has a consensus price target of $41.70, suggesting a potential downside of 12.93%. Nuance Communications has a consensus price target of $49.00, suggesting a potential upside of 2.53%. Given Nuance Communications' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Nuance Communications is more favorable than PagerDuty.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares PagerDuty and Nuance Communications' top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
---|
PagerDuty | $166.35 million | 23.59 | $-50,340,000.00 | ($0.77) | -62.19 |
Nuance Communications | $1.48 billion | 9.21 | $21.40 million | $0.47 | 101.68 |
Nuance Communications has higher revenue and earnings than PagerDuty. PagerDuty is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Nuance Communications, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares PagerDuty and Nuance Communications' net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
---|
PagerDuty | -28.57% | -15.64% | -8.68% |
Nuance Communications | 1.89% | 11.24% | 3.56% |
Volatility & Risk
PagerDuty has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nuance Communications has a beta of 1.22, indicating that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Nuance Communications beats PagerDuty on 10 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.