Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) vs. HeartCore Enterprises (NASDAQ:HTCR) Head-To-Head Review

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) and HeartCore Enterprises (NASDAQ:HTCR) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

1.7% of HeartCore Enterprises shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.6% of Sprout Social shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 36.1% of HeartCore Enterprises shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Sprout Social has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HeartCore Enterprises has a beta of 1.67, suggesting that its share price is 67% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Sprout Social and HeartCore Enterprises, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sprout Social	2	4	4	0	2.20
HeartCore Enterprises	1	0	0	0	1.00

Sprout Social presently has a consensus price target of $10.88, suggesting a potential downside of 9.75%. Given Sprout Social’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Sprout Social is more favorable than HeartCore Enterprises.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sprout Social and HeartCore Enterprises”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sprout Social	$457.55 million	1.60	-$43.33 million	($0.50)	-24.10
HeartCore Enterprises	$8.97 million	0.25	$5.79 million	($4.21)	-0.35

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

Profitability

This table compares Sprout Social and HeartCore Enterprises’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sprout Social	-6.13%	-8.80%	-3.64%
HeartCore Enterprises	15.42%	-138.90%	-53.97%

Summary

Sprout Social beats HeartCore Enterprises on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sprout Social

Sprout Social, Inc. designs, develops, and operates a web-based social media management platform in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides cloud software for social messaging, data and workflows in a unified system of record, intelligence, and action. It offers integrated tools, such as social engagement/response; publishing; reporting and analytics; social listening and business intelligence; reputation management; social commerce; employee advocacy; and automation and workflows. In addition, the company provides smart inbox, social customer relationship management, social monitoring and alerts, customer service tools, and automation; and centralized content planning, creation, and publishing, automated scheduling, content performance reporting, suggested content, message approval workflows, publishing permissions and governance, and content and asset libraries. Further, it offers social media; content performance, customer service and team, custom report builder, and reporting API; and market research, brand health, competitive insights, consumer trends, and product feedback; and social commerce, reputation management, employee advocacy, mobile applications, and chat bot creation and management. Additionally, the company offers professional services consisting of consulting and training services. It serves social and community management; public relations; marketing; influencer marketing; customer service and care; commerce, sales and customer acquisition; recruiting and hiring, product development, and business strategy; and small-and-medium-sized businesses, mid-market companies, enterprises, marketing agencies, government, non-profit, and educational institutions. Sprout Social, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About HeartCore Enterprises

HeartCore Enterprises, Inc., a software development company, provides Software as a Service solutions to enterprise customers in Japan and internationally. Its customer experience management platform includes marketing, sales, service, and content management systems, as well as other tools and integrations, which enable companies to enhance the customer experience and drive engagement. The company also operates a digital transformation business that offers customers with robotics process automation, process mining, and task mining to accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises. In addition, it provides consulting services; and education, services, and support solutions. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.