LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) and ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) Financial Analysis

LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) and ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, valuation and earnings.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LivePerson and ANSYS”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
LivePerson	$401.98 million	0.29	-$100.43 million	($1.53)	-0.84
ANSYS	$2.27 billion	12.87	$500.41 million	$6.48	51.56

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

Volatility & Risk

LivePerson has a beta of 1.59, suggesting that its share price is 59% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ANSYS has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares LivePerson and ANSYS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LivePerson	-18.72%	-111.48%	-6.78%
ANSYS	23.01%	12.64%	9.55%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

79.8% of LivePerson shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of ANSYS shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.0% of LivePerson shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of ANSYS shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for LivePerson and ANSYS, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LivePerson	1	7	0	0	1.88
ANSYS	1	2	1	0	2.00

LivePerson currently has a consensus price target of $1.25, suggesting a potential downside of 2.34%. ANSYS has a consensus price target of $346.67, suggesting a potential upside of 3.76%. Given ANSYS’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ANSYS is more favorable than LivePerson.

Summary

ANSYS beats LivePerson on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About LivePerson

LivePerson, Inc. engages in conversational artificial intelligence. It enables brands to leverage the Conversational Cloud's intelligence engine to connect with consumers through an integrated suite of mobile and online business messaging technologies. The company offers the Conversational Cloud, an enterprise-class digital customer conversation platform, which enables businesses and consumers to connect through conversational channels, such as voice, in-app, and mobile messaging. It also provides professional services; LivePerson's Conversational AI, including conversation builder, manager, and intelligence, and intent manager. In addition, it provides Voice AI, conversational intelligence and insights, and integration services. The company sells its products to Fortune 500 companies, Internet businesses, online merchants, automotive dealers, educational institution, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations. It operates in the United States, Canada, Latin America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Asia-Pacific. LivePerson, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About ANSYS

ANSYS, Inc. develops and markets engineering simulation software and services for engineers, designers, researchers, and students in the United States, Japan, Germany, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It offers structural analysis product suite that provides simulation tools for product design and optimization; the Ansys Mechanical product, an element analysis software; LS-DYNA solver for multiphysics simulation; and power analysis and optimization software suite. The company also offers electronics product suite that provides electromagnetic field simulation software for designing electronic and electromechanical products; Ansys High Frequency Structure Simulator product for radio frequency and microwave design; SCADE product suite, a solution for embedded software simulation, code production, and automated certification; fluids product suite that enables modeling of fluid flow and other related physical phenomena; Ansys Fluent computational fluid dynamics software package; Ansys RedHawk-SC for electronic design automation; Ansys Optics software; and mission-simulation, modeling, testing, and analysis software. In addition, it offers Ansys Granta MI system for materials information management; Ansys Granta Selector technology for materials selection and graphical analysis; CES EduPack product, a set of teaching resources; Granta Materials Data for Simulation; Ansys Lumerical product, a photonics simulation software solution; safety-certified embedded software solutions; Discovery product family for use in the simulation of product design; academic product suite for research and teaching settings. ANSYS, Inc. was founded in 1970 and is headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.