Comparing i3 Verticals (NASDAQ:IIIV) and Airship AI (NASDAQ:AISP)

i3 Verticals (NASDAQ:IIIV) and Airship AI (NASDAQ:AISP) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for i3 Verticals and Airship AI, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
i3 Verticals	1	3	3	0	2.29
Airship AI	1	1	0	0	1.50

i3 Verticals presently has a consensus price target of $25.40, suggesting a potential upside of 49.94%. Airship AI has a consensus price target of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 183.84%. Given Airship AI’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Airship AI is more favorable than i3 Verticals.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares i3 Verticals and Airship AI”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
i3 Verticals	$213.16 million	2.09	$17.87 million	$0.38	44.58
Airship AI	$15.32 million	5.15	$29.32 million	$0.67	3.42

Airship AI has lower revenue, but higher earnings than i3 Verticals. Airship AI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than i3 Verticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

84.2% of i3 Verticals shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 5.9% of Airship AI shares are held by institutional investors. 60.1% of i3 Verticals shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 46.8% of Airship AI shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

i3 Verticals has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Airship AI has a beta of 0.63, suggesting that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares i3 Verticals and Airship AI’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
i3 Verticals	4.24%	4.49%	3.31%
Airship AI	144.60%	-19.13%	18.72%

Summary

i3 Verticals beats Airship AI on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About i3 Verticals

i3 Verticals, Inc. provides integrated payment and software solutions primarily to the public sector and healthcare markets in the United States. It operates in two segments, Software and Services, and Merchant Services. The company offers payment processing services that enables upper and lower court case management, collections, finance and accounting, motor vehicle and carrier registration, e-filing and taxation, license plate inventory, property tax management, utility billing, professional licensing, document workflow, and law enforcement software; assists public schools in completing payment processing functions, including accepting payments for online or at school lunches, and school activities. It also provides software platforms, such as electronic healthcare records and revenue cycle management solutions; insurance adjudication, patient engagement platforms, billing, scheduling, and integrated payments solutions; and workflow software and associated professional services to medical insurance payers. In addition, the company engages in software licenses and subscriptions, transaction-based fees, ongoing software maintenance and support, and other software-related solutions; and payment processing and gateway fees, as well as other related fixed transaction or service fees. Further, it sells equipment, and offers non-software related professional services. The company offers its solutions to clients through direct sales force; distribution partners comprising independent software vendors, independent sales organizations, and value-added resellers. i3 Verticals, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Airship AI

Airship AI Holdings, Inc. offers AI-driven video, sensor, and data management surveillance platform in the United States. The company provides Airship Acropolis OS, an IP and analog video surveillance; Airship Command, a suite of visualization tools that allows users to view data and evidence ingested from the edge; and Airship Outpost for high-definition recording with user defined low-bit rate video stream encoding. It serves government, public sector, law enforcement, military, and commercial enterprise organizations. The company was formerly known as Super Simple AI, Inc. and changed its name to Airship AI Holdings, Inc. in March 2023. Airship AI Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.