Financial Analysis: Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR) versus CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD)

CrowdStrike (NASDAQ:CRWD) and Smartsheet (NYSE:SMAR) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, institutional ownership and valuation.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

71.2% of CrowdStrike shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.0% of Smartsheet shares are held by institutional investors. 4.3% of CrowdStrike shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.5% of Smartsheet shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares CrowdStrike and Smartsheet’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CrowdStrike	3.39%	7.11%	2.72%
Smartsheet	-0.80%	2.33%	1.12%

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares CrowdStrike and Smartsheet”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
CrowdStrike	$3.74 billion	24.23	$89.33 million	$0.51	721.61
Smartsheet	$1.08 billion	7.19	-$104.63 million	($0.06)	-933.67

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for CrowdStrike and Smartsheet, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CrowdStrike	1	9	30	3	2.81
Smartsheet	1	17	2	0	2.05

CrowdStrike currently has a consensus target price of $355.80, indicating a potential downside of 3.32%. Smartsheet has a consensus target price of $55.82, indicating a potential downside of 0.35%. Given Smartsheet’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Smartsheet is more favorable than CrowdStrike.

Volatility and Risk

CrowdStrike has a beta of 1.11, indicating that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Smartsheet has a beta of 0.71, indicating that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

CrowdStrike beats Smartsheet on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About CrowdStrike

CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc. provides cybersecurity solutions in the United States and internationally. Its unified platform offers cloud-delivered protection of endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data. The company offers corporate endpoint and cloud workload security, managed security, security and vulnerability management, IT operations management, identity protection, SIEM and log management, threat intelligence, data protection, security orchestration, automation and response and AI powered workflow automation, and securing generative AI workload services. It primarily sells subscriptions to its Falcon platform and cloud modules. The company was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Smartsheet

Smartsheet, Inc. engages in managing and automating collaborative work. Its platform provides solutions that eliminate the obstacles to capturing information, including a familiar and intuitive spreadsheet interface as well as easily customizable forms. The company was founded by W. Eric Browne, Maria Colacurcio, John D. Creason and Brent R. Frei in June 2005 and is headquartered in Bellevue, WA.