Analyzing HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS) and Cision (NYSE:CISN)

HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS) and Cision (NYSE:CISN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares HubSpot and Cision’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HubSpot	-9.92%	-7.93%	-3.01%
Cision	-1.84%	27.68%	5.30%

Analyst Ratings

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

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HubSpot	0	7	16	0	2.70
Cision	0	2	2	0	2.50

HubSpot currently has a consensus price target of $197.21, indicating a potential upside of 4.26%. Cision has a consensus price target of $14.50, indicating a potential upside of 103.08%. Given Cision’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cision is more favorable than HubSpot.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares HubSpot and Cision’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HubSpot	$512.98 million	15.67	-$63.82 million	($1.02)	-185.45
Cision	$730.37 million	1.45	-$24.39 million	$0.83	8.60

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.9% of HubSpot shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.1% of Cision shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.3% of HubSpot shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of Cision shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

HubSpot has a beta of 1.67, suggesting that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cision has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Cision beats HubSpot on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

HubSpot Company Profile

HubSpot, Inc. provides a cloud-based marketing and sales software platform for businesses in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company’s software platform includes integrated applications, such as customer relationship management, search engine optimization, blogging, Website content management, messaging, chatbots, social media, marketing automation, email, predictive lead scoring, sales productivity, ticketing and helpdesk tools, customer NPS surveys, analytics, and reporting. It also offers professional, as well as phone and/or email and chat based support services. It serves mid-market business-to-business companies. The company markets its products through inbound go-to-market approach, marketing agency, and sales partners. HubSpot, Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Cision Company Profile

Cision Ltd. provides public relations (PR) software, media distribution, media intelligence, and related professional services to businesses worldwide. The company enables public relations and communications professionals to manage, execute, and measure their strategic PR and communications programs. It offers Cision Communications Cloud, a cloud-based platform that enables companies and brands to build relationships with influencers and buyers in order to amplify their marketplace influence; and provides media database that offers access to influencers when planning a campaign, as well as to schedule and record various interactions with contacts. The company also provides PR Newswire that offers wire distribution services, as well as a suite of products and services for investor relations professionals, including distribution of earnings and other material news, Webcasts and conference calls, IR Website hosting, and virtual investor conferences. In addition, it offers media monitoring software that tracks and monitors content on digital, print, social, and broadcast sources. Further, the company enables its customers to assess media coverage by collecting and analyzing data and metrics on audience engagement, campaign reach and effectiveness, sentiment, and competitive benchmarking to quantify campaign results of earned media strategies, as well as provides data-driven insights that inform the creation of future campaigns and marketing investment. Cision Ltd. was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

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