Lightspeed Commerce (NYSE:LSPD) and Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Head to Head Survey

Lightspeed Commerce (NYSE:LSPD) and Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, valuation and earnings.

Volatility and Risk

Lightspeed Commerce has a beta of 2.49, suggesting that its share price is 149% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Appian has a beta of 1.83, suggesting that its share price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

68.7% of Lightspeed Commerce shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.7% of Appian shares are owned by institutional investors. 44.0% of Appian shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Lightspeed Commerce	-11.75%	0.61%	0.57%
Appian	-14.95%	-532.05%	-10.88%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Lightspeed Commerce and Appian”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Lightspeed Commerce	$1.05 billion	1.41	-$163.96 million	($0.80)	-12.18
Appian	$617.02 million	3.65	-$92.26 million	($1.26)	-24.14

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Lightspeed Commerce and Appian, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Lightspeed Commerce	1	11	5	1	2.33
Appian	1	5	2	0	2.13

Lightspeed Commerce currently has a consensus target price of $14.29, indicating a potential upside of 46.61%. Appian has a consensus target price of $34.14, indicating a potential upside of 12.24%. Given Lightspeed Commerce’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Lightspeed Commerce is more favorable than Appian.

Summary

Lightspeed Commerce beats Appian 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 Appian

Appian Corporation, a software company that provides low-code design platform in the United States, Mexico, Portugal, and internationally. The company's platform offers artificial intelligence, process automation, data fabric, and process mining. It provides The Appian Platform, an integrated automation platform that enables organizations to design, automate, and optimize mission-critical business processes. The company also offers professional and customer support services. It serves to financial services, government, life sciences, insurance, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, telecommunications, and transportation industries. Appian Corporation was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.