Contrasting Alight (NYSE:ALIT) and Materialise (NASDAQ:MTLS)

Alight (NYSE:ALIT) and Materialise (NASDAQ:MTLS) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings and institutional ownership.

Risk and Volatility

Alight has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Materialise has a beta of 1.24, indicating that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Alight and Materialise”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alight	$2.33 billion	0.79	-$157.00 million	($2.21)	-1.55
Materialise	$288.70 million	N/A	$14.54 million	$0.10	55.30

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Alight and Materialise, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alight	0	0	6	0	3.00
Materialise	0	0	0	0	0.00

Alight currently has a consensus target price of $8.75, indicating a potential upside of 155.10%. Given Alight’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Alight is more favorable than Materialise.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.7% of Alight shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 19.3% of Materialise shares are held by institutional investors. 1.9% of Alight shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.2% of Materialise shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Alight and Materialise’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alight	-50.37%	6.26%	3.21%
Materialise	2.08%	2.25%	1.41%

Summary

Alight beats Materialise on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alight

Alight, Inc. provides cloud-based integrated digital human capital and business solutions worldwide. The company operates through two segments, Employer Solutions and Professional Services. The Employer Solutions segment offers employee wellbeing, integrated benefits administration, healthcare navigation, financial wellbeing, leave of absence management, retiree healthcare and payroll; and operates AI-led capabilities software. The Professional Services segment offers consulting offerings, such as cloud advisory, deployment, and optimization services for cloud platforms. The company provides Alight Worklife, an intuitive, cloud-based employee engagement platform. Its solutions enable employees to enrich their health, wealth, and wellbeing that helps organizations achieve a high-performance culture. Alight, Inc. was founded in 2020 and is based in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

About Materialise

Materialise NV provides additive manufacturing and medical software, and 3D printing services in the Americas, Europe and Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company operates through three segments: Materialise Software, Materialise Medical, and Materialise Manufacturing. The Materialise Software segment offers software through programs and platforms that enable and enhance the functionality of 3D printers and of 3D printing operations. Its software interfaces between various types of 3D printers; and various software applications and capturing technologies, including computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing packages and 3D scanners. This segment serves 3D printing machine manufacturers; production companies and contract manufacturers in automotive, aerospace, consumer goods, and hearing aid industries; and 3D printing service bureaus through its sales force, Website, and third party distributors. The Materialise Medical segment provides medical software that allows medical-image based analysis, planning, and engineering, as well as patient-specific design and printing of surgical devices and implants. It serves medical device companies, hospitals, universities, research institutes, and industrial companies through its direct sales force, Website, and picture archiving and communication system. The Materialise Manufacturing segment provides 3D printing services, design and engineering services, and rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing of production parts to industrial and commercial customers. The company has collaboration agreements with Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc.; Encore Medical, L.P.; DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson; Limacorporate Spa; Mathys AG; Corin Ltd; Smith & Nephew Inc.; Corin Ltd; Medtronic Inc.; and Abbott Laboratories Inc. Materialise NV was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Leuven, Belgium.