Financial Review: BILL (NYSE:BILL) and Aware (NASDAQ:AWRE)

BILL (NYSE:BILL) and Aware (NASDAQ:AWRE) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares BILL and Aware’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
BILL	5.90%	1.53%	0.66%
Aware	-44.06%	-14.46%	-10.72%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for BILL and Aware, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
BILL	1	7	12	0	2.55
Aware	0	0	0	0	0.00

BILL currently has a consensus price target of $80.89, suggesting a potential upside of 72.18%. Given BILL’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe BILL is more favorable than Aware.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares BILL and Aware”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
BILL	$1.39 billion	3.45	-$28.88 million	($0.01)	-4,697.90
Aware	$17.39 million	2.07	-$7.31 million	($0.22)	-7.70

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.0% of BILL shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 24.4% of Aware shares are held by institutional investors. 4.2% of BILL shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 28.0% of Aware shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

BILL has a beta of 2, suggesting that its share price is 100% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aware has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

BILL beats Aware on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About BILL

BILL Holdings, Inc. provides financial automation software for small and midsize businesses worldwide. The company provides software-as-a-service, cloud-based payments, and spend management products, which allow users to automate accounts payable and accounts receivable transactions, as well as enable users to connect with their suppliers and/or customers to do business, eliminate expense reports, manage cash flows, and improve office efficiency. It also offers onboarding implementation support, and ongoing support and training services. In addition, the company's artificial intelligence enabled software provides connections between suppliers and clients. It serves accounting firms, financial institutions, and software companies. The company was formerly known as Bill.com Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to BILL Holdings, Inc. in February 2023. BILL Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.

About Aware

Aware, Inc., an authentication company, provides biometrics software products and solutions for government agencies and commercial entities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers biometric software solution, including Knomi, a mobile biometric framework which provides multiple biometric modality options; AwareABIS, an automated biometric identification system used for large-scale biometric identification and deduplication; AFIX suite used for small-scale law enforcement focused biometric identification; and AFIX Tracker for fingerprint, palmprint, and latent print identification, as well as AFIX Face, AFIX Verifier, AFIX Identifier, AFIX Comparator, AFIX Engine, and AFIX NIST Transaction Engine. It also provides BioSP, a biometric integration platform-as-a-service that enables biometric data processing and management functionality in a web services architecture; WebEnroll, a browser-based biometric enrollment and data management solution; and AwareID, a software-as-a-service that provides identity verification and continuous authentication capabilities. In addition, the company offers biometrics applications, such as Nexa line, a biometric search and match SDKs including Nexa Fingerprint, Nexa Face, Nexa Iris, and Nexa Voice; and AwareXM, an interoperable fingerprint matching SDK that provides fingerprint minutiae extraction, template generation, and fingerprint authentication. Further, it sells imaging products used in medical and advanced imaging application; and offers software maintenance, program management, and software engineering services. The company sells its products, services, and solutions through systems integrators, direct, and original equipment manufacturers and value added resellers channel. Aware, Inc. was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.