Workiva (NYSE:WK) and Lightspeed Commerce (NYSE:LSPD) Head to Head Analysis

Lightspeed Commerce (NYSE:LSPD) and Workiva (NYSE:WK) are both technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

68.7% of Lightspeed Commerce shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.2% of Workiva shares are held by institutional investors. 4.8% of Workiva shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lightspeed Commerce and Workiva”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lightspeed Commerce	$1.23 billion	1.11	-$144.41 million	($0.70)	-14.09
Workiva	$884.57 million	4.43	-$26.17 million	$0.82	85.13

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Lightspeed Commerce and Workiva, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lightspeed Commerce	3	9	4	0	2.06
Workiva	1	0	9	1	2.91

Lightspeed Commerce presently has a consensus target price of $11.54, suggesting a potential upside of 16.97%. Workiva has a consensus target price of $88.30, suggesting a potential upside of 26.49%. Given Workiva’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Workiva is more favorable than Lightspeed Commerce.

Profitability

This table compares Lightspeed Commerce and Workiva’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lightspeed Commerce	-7.81%	1.06%	0.95%
Workiva	4.87%	-140.17%	3.74%

Risk and Volatility

Lightspeed Commerce has a beta of 1.84, meaning that its stock price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Workiva has a beta of 0.49, meaning that its stock price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Workiva beats Lightspeed Commerce on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Lightspeed Commerce

Lightspeed Commerce Inc. engages in sale of cloud-based software subscriptions and payments solutions for small and midsize businesses, retailers, restaurants, and golf course operators in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. Its Software as a Service platform enables customers to engage with consumers, manage operations, accept payments, etc. The company's cloud platforms are designed interrelated elements, such as omni-channel consumer experience, a comprehensive back-office operations management suite to improve customers' efficiency and insight, and the facilitation of payments. Its platform functionalities include full omni-channel capabilities, point of sale (POS), product and menu management, employee and inventory management, analytics and reporting, multi-location connectivity, order-ahead and curbside pickup functionality, loyalty, and customer management solutions. The company also offers tailored financial solutions, such as Lightspeed Retail, Lightspeed eCommerce, Lightspeed Restaurant, and Lightspeed B2B solutions. In addition, it sells hardware, including tablets, customer facing displays, receipt printers, networking hardware, cash drawers, payment terminals, servers, stands, bar-code scanners, and an assortment of accessories, as well as provides installation and implementation services. The company was formerly known as Lightspeed POS Inc. and changed its name to Lightspeed Commerce Inc. in August 2021. Lightspeed Commerce Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

About Workiva

Workiva Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based reporting solutions in the United States and internationally. The company offers Workiva platform, a multi-tenant cloud software that provides data linking capabilities; audit trail services; administrators access management; and allows customers to connect data from multiple enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and customer relationship management systems, as well as other third-party cloud and on-premise applications. It serves public and private companies, government agencies, and higher-education institutions. Workiva Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Ames, Iowa.