Comparing Sapiens International (NASDAQ:SPNS) and Coursera (NYSE:COUR)

Coursera (NYSE:COUR) and Sapiens International (NASDAQ:SPNS) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Coursera and Sapiens International’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coursera	$635.76 million	2.24	-$116.55 million	($0.69)	-13.25
Sapiens International	$514.58 million	3.66	$62.44 million	$1.12	30.50

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

Volatility and Risk

Coursera has a beta of 1.57, indicating that its stock price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sapiens International has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.6% of Coursera shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.7% of Sapiens International shares are held by institutional investors. 15.9% of Coursera shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 16.0% of Sapiens International shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Coursera and Sapiens International, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coursera	1	2	8	0	2.64
Sapiens International	1	0	2	0	2.33

Coursera presently has a consensus target price of $16.85, indicating a potential upside of 84.35%. Sapiens International has a consensus target price of $35.33, indicating a potential upside of 3.43%. Given Coursera’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Coursera is more favorable than Sapiens International.

Profitability

This table compares Coursera and Sapiens International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coursera	-16.05%	-16.03%	-10.77%
Sapiens International	12.14%	16.92%	10.87%

Summary

Sapiens International beats Coursera on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coursera

Coursera, Inc. operates an online educational content platform in the United States, Europe, Africa, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Consumer, Enterprise, and Degrees. The company offers guided projects, courses, and specializations, as well as online degrees; and certificates for entry-level professional, non-entry level professional, university, and MasterTrack. It offers its products to individuals, enterprise, business, campus, and government. The company was formerly known as Dkandu, Inc. and changed its name to Coursera, Inc. in April 2012. Coursera, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

About Sapiens International

Sapiens International Corporation N.V. provides software solutions for the insurance industry in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company provides various solutions for property and casualty commercial and personal lines, life and pensions, and reinsurance fields. It offers IDITSuite, an AI powered, end-to-end insurance software; DigitalSuite, a cloud-native, future-proof digital engagement platform; IDITGo, a pre-configured, data-enriched insurance launch and accelerator platform solutions; consultancy services for property and casualty commercial lines; and Tia Enterprise solution for customer engagement. The company also provides CoreSuite, an end-to-end cloud and digital PAS for individual and group products across life, health, wealth, and pensions; CustomerConnect, a dynamic self-service and persona-based portal to engage with insureds; AgentConnect, a portal for agents and brokers to focus on sales enablement, customer retention, and increasing customer value; and ReinsuranceMaster, a reinsurance automation software that provides insurers full financial control and flexibility over their entire reinsurance process. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Holon, Israel.