Contrasting IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) & Guidewire Software (NYSE:GWRE)

Guidewire Software (NYSE:GWRE) and IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Guidewire Software and IREN, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Guidewire Software	0	4	12	0	2.75
IREN	1	3	17	1	2.82

Guidewire Software presently has a consensus price target of $216.23, suggesting a potential upside of 50.04%. IREN has a consensus price target of $84.00, suggesting a potential upside of 79.95%. Given IREN’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe IREN is more favorable than Guidewire Software.

Profitability

This table compares Guidewire Software and IREN’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Guidewire Software	9.44%	12.66%	6.73%
IREN	-99.38%	-15.46%	-5.51%

Volatility and Risk

Guidewire Software has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, IREN has a beta of 4.28, indicating that its stock price is 328% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

41.1% of IREN shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Guidewire Software shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.0% of IREN 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Guidewire Software and IREN”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Guidewire Software	$1.48 billion	8.13	$139.28 million	$1.63	88.41
IREN	$707.01 million	26.02	-$702.62 million	($2.34)	-19.95

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

Summary

IREN beats Guidewire Software on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Guidewire Software

Guidewire Software, Inc. provides a platform for property and casualty (P&C) insurers worldwide. The company offers Guidewire InsuranceSuite Cloud, such as PolicyCenter Cloud, BillingCenter Cloud, and ClaimCenter Cloud applications. It also provides Guidewire InsuranceNow, a cloud-based platform that offers policy, billing, and claims management functionality to insurers; and Guidewire InsuranceSuite for Self-Managed. In addition, the company offers Guidewire Rating Management to manage the pricing of insurance products; and Guidewire Reinsurance Management to use rules-based logic to execute reinsurance strategy through underwriting and claims processes. Further, it provides Guidewire Underwriting Management, a cloud-based integrated business application; Guidewire AppReader, a submission intake management solution; Guidewire ClaimCenter Package for the London market supports the claims workflow used by London Market insurers and brokers; Guidewire Digital Engagement Applications, which enable insurers to provide digital experiences to customers, agents, vendors, and field personnel through their device of choice; and Guidewire for Salesforce to provide customer information regarding policies and claims. Additionally, the company offers Guidewire Predict, a P&C-specific machine-learning platform; Guidewire HazardHub that allows insurers to understand, assess, price, and manage property risk; Guidewire Canvas, Guidewire Compare, and Guidewire Explore cloud-native applications; and Guidewire Cyence, a cyber-risk economic modeling product. The company was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.

About IREN

IREN Limited, formerly known as Iris Energy Limited, owns and operates bitcoin mining data centers. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.