Both Gridsum Holding Inc. (NASDAQ:GSUM) and Qualys Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS) compete on a level playing field in the Application Software industry. We will evaluate their performance with regards to institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.
Valuation & Earnings
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Gridsum Holding Inc. | N/A | 0.00 | N/A | -1.60 | 0.00 |
| Qualys Inc. | 278.89M | 12.14 | 57.30M | 1.37 | 60.41 |
Table 1 shows top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation of the two companies.
Profitability
Table 2 demonstrates the return on equity, net margins and return on assets of Gridsum Holding Inc. and Qualys Inc.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Gridsum Holding Inc. | 0.00% | -57.2% | -24.6% |
| Qualys Inc. | 20.55% | 15.7% | 9.9% |
Liquidity
Gridsum Holding Inc. has a Current Ratio of 2 and a Quick Ratio of 2. Competitively, Qualys Inc.’s Current Ratio is 1.9 and has 1.9 Quick Ratio. Gridsum Holding Inc.’s better ability to pay short and long-term obligations than Qualys Inc.
Analyst Ratings
Gridsum Holding Inc. and Qualys Inc. Ratings and Recommendations are available on the next table.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Gridsum Holding Inc. | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Qualys Inc. | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2.43 |
On the other hand, Qualys Inc.’s potential upside is 2.89% and its average target price is $88.43.
Insider and Institutional Ownership
Institutional investors held 40.9% of Gridsum Holding Inc. shares and 87.9% of Qualys Inc. shares. 5.3% are Gridsum Holding Inc.’s share held by insiders. Competitively, Qualys Inc. has 15.2% of it’s share held by insiders.
Performance
In this table we show the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.
| Performance (W) | Performance (M) | Performance (Q) | Performance (HY) | Performance (Y) | Performance (YTD) | |
| Gridsum Holding Inc. | 1.29% | 79.09% | -6.86% | -33.22% | -61.6% | 76.68% |
| Qualys Inc. | -1.57% | -4.36% | 7.62% | -9.05% | 10.64% | 10.73% |
For the past year Gridsum Holding Inc. was more bullish than Qualys Inc.
Summary
On 9 of the 11 factors Qualys Inc. beats Gridsum Holding Inc.
Gridsum Holding Inc. provides data analysis software for multinational and domestic enterprises, and government agencies in China. Its proprietary distributed data architecture allows its customers to collect and analyze vast amounts of 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; 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 and operational efficiency monitor 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 could-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 a range of customer needs. The company was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Beijing, China.
Qualys, Inc. provides cloud-based security and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. The company offers Qualys Cloud Suite, which includes Vulnerability Management, Continuous Monitoring, Cloud Agent, AssetView, ThreatPROTECT, Policy Compliance, PCI Compliance, Security Assessment Questionnaire, Web Application Scanning, and Web Application Firewall. Its integrated suite of security and compliance solutions delivered on its Qualys Cloud Platform enables customers to identify their IT assets, collect and analyze IT security data, discover and prioritize vulnerabilities, recommend remediation actions, and verify the implementation of such actions. The company also provides core services, including asset tagging and management, reporting and dashboards, questionnaires and collaboration, remediation and workflow, big data correlation and analytics engine, and alerts and notifications, which enable integrated workflows, management and real-time analysis, and reporting across IT security and compliance solutions. In addition, it offers cloud infrastructure services that include the data, data processing capabilities, software and hardware infrastructure, and infrastructure management capabilities. The company markets and sells its IT security and compliance solutions to customers directly through its sales teams, as well as indirectly through its network of channel partners, such as security consulting organizations, managed service providers, value added resellers, and consulting firms. It serves enterprises, government entities, and small and medium-sized businesses in various industries, including education, financial services, government, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, media, retail, technology, and utilities. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.