Critical Survey: Gridsum (GSUM) & Progress Software (PRGS)

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) and Gridsum (NASDAQ:GSUM) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, profitability and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Progress Software has a beta of 0.9, indicating that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gridsum has a beta of 3.14, indicating that its share price is 214% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Progress Software and Gridsum, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

Progress Software presently has a consensus price target of $39.00, suggesting a potential upside of 11.21%. Given Progress Software’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Progress Software is more favorable than Gridsum.

Dividends

Progress Software pays an annual dividend of $0.62 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Gridsum does not pay a dividend. Progress Software pays out 36.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Profitability

This table compares Progress Software and Gridsum’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

92.4% of Progress Software shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 31.4% of Gridsum shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.0% of Progress Software shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Progress Software and Gridsum’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Progress Software has higher revenue and earnings than Gridsum.

Summary

Progress Software beats Gridsum on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

Progress Software Company Profile

Progress Software Corporation provides software solutions for various industries worldwide. It operates through three segments: OpenEdge; Data Connectivity and Integration; and Application Development and Deployment. The OpenEdge segment offers Progress OpenEdge, a development software, which builds multi-language applications for secure deployment across various platforms and devices, as well as cloud; Progress Corticon, a business rules management system that enables applications with decision automation and change process, and decision-related insight capabilities; DataRPM, which provides maintenance solutions for industrial IoT; and Kinvey that offers cloud backend as a service technology. The Data Connectivity and Integration segment provides Progress DataDirect Connect software, which offers data connectivity using industry-standard interfaces to connect applications running on various platforms; and Progress DataDirect Hybrid Data Pipeline, a data access service that provides cloud and on-premises data sources for hybrid cloud applications, such as CRM, data management platforms, and hosted analytics. The Application Development and Deployment segment offers Dev Tools, a cross-platform, user experience design, quality assurance, debugging, and reporting suite; NativeScript, an open-source application development platform; Test Studio, an application lifecycle management suite for testing Web, mobile, and desktop applications; and Sitefinity, a Web content management and customer analytics platform. The company also provides project management, implementation, custom development, programming, and other services, as well as services to Web-enable applications; and training services. It sells its products directly to end users, as well as indirectly to application partners, original equipment manufacturers, and system integrators. Progress Software Corporation was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts.

Gridsum Company Profile

Gridsum Holding Inc. provides data analysis software for enterprises and government agencies in China. Its proprietary distributed data architecture allows its customers to collect and analyze information; and Gridsum Big Data platform performs multi-dimensional correlation analysis and analyzes complex real-time events. The company offers Web Dissector to analyze customer Websites by monitoring and analyzing key performance indicators; Mobile Dissector to understand mobile app user activity; SEM Dissector for search engine marketing; SEO Dissector, a search engine optimization tool; Ad Dissector, an advertisement performance monitoring and optimization product; Contribution Dissector to evaluate the performance of advertising campaigns; Audience Dissector, an audience analysis product; and Recommendation Engine, a data driven content recommendation solution. It also provides Government Web Dissector, a digital intelligence solution; Government Website Group Integrated Management Platform, an integrated management platform; Streaming Dissector, a real-time viewership analysis for digital online video; Video Dissector, an online video content analytics tool; TV Dissector, an analytics tool; Rating Plus, a television viewing data analytics tool; and Media Dissector, a mass, social, and user-generated content media monitoring and analytics tool. In addition, the company offers Law Dissector, a search and statistical analysis tool; Smart Push, a legal research tool; Information Dissector, an insightful analytical system; Social Listening, a cloud-based social listening solution; Gridsum Dashboard, a data visualization tool; and Gridsum Report Center, an automated report generation and distribution tool. Further, it develops new media analytics and information discovery solutions to address customer needs. Gridsum Holding Inc. has a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Bee China. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.

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