Reviewing Sify Technologies (NASDAQ:SIFY) and Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK)

Sify Technologies (NASDAQ:SIFY) and Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Volatility & Risk

Sify Technologies has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Upwork has a beta of 1.38, suggesting that its share price is 38% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Sify Technologies and Upwork, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sify Technologies	0	0	0	0	0.00
Upwork	0	4	8	0	2.67

Upwork has a consensus target price of $18.67, suggesting a potential upside of 41.09%. Given Upwork’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Upwork is more favorable than Sify Technologies.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

0.6% of Sify Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Upwork shares are owned by institutional investors. 77.0% of Sify Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 7.5% of Upwork shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Sify Technologies and Upwork’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sify Technologies	-2.20%	-8.70%	-2.15%
Upwork	30.46%	48.38%	20.77%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sify Technologies and Upwork”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sify Technologies	$39.89 billion	0.01	-$9.17 million	$0.04	139.25
Upwork	$769.33 million	2.26	$215.59 million	$1.67	7.92

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

Summary

Upwork beats Sify Technologies on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sify Technologies

Sify Technologies Limited offers ICT solutions and services in India and internationally. It operates through Network Centric Services, Data Center Services, and Digital Services segments. The company offers internet, internet protocol, multi-protocol label switching, virtual private network, SDWAN, managed Wi-Fi, internet of things, wholesale and retail voice, dedicated internet access, and proactive monitoring and management of the network and devices. It provides co-location services; and managed hosting services, such as storage, back-up management, performance monitoring, infrastructure monitoring and management, network availability, server load balancing, managed shared firewall, web server log reporting, and remote and smart hands services. In addition, it offers managed network services; EDGE services; cloud and managed services, including infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, virtual private data center, computing services, IT platform, backup and recovery solution, and content delivery network; remote and onsite infrastructure managed services; and managed security services. Further, the company provides technology integration services; application integration services, which includes talent management, supply chain management, web portal solutions content services, portal development and maintenance, eLearning, digital signature, SAP, Microsoft, Oracle services. The company was formerly known as Sify Limited and changed its name to Sify Technologies Limited in October 2007. Sify Technologies Limited was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Chennai, India. Sify Technologies Limited is a subsidiary of Ramanand Core Investment Company Private Limited.

About Upwork

Upwork Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a work marketplace that connects businesses with various independent professionals and agencies in the United States, India, the Philippines, and internationally. The company’s work marketplace provides access to talent with various skills across a range of categories, including administrative support, sales and marketing, design and creative, and customer service, as well as web, mobile, and software development. Its work marketplace also enables clients to streamline workflows, such as talent sourcing, outreach, and contracting. The company’s work marketplace offers access to various functionalities for remote engagements with talent, including communication and collaboration, ability to receive talent invoices through their work marketplace, and payment protection. Its marketplace offerings include Upwork Payroll and Upwork Enterprise, as well as managed and escrow services. The company was formerly known as Elance-oDesk, Inc. and changed its name to Upwork Inc. in May 2015. Upwork Inc. was incorporated in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.