Critical Comparison: Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) versus ImageWare Systems (OTCMKTS:IWSY)

Open Text (NASDAQ:OTEX) and ImageWare Systems (OTCMKTS:IWSY) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and dividends.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Open Text and ImageWare Systems, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Open Text	1	8	4	0	2.23
ImageWare Systems	0	0	0	0	0.00

Open Text presently has a consensus target price of $37.25, indicating a potential downside of 4.56%. Given ImageWare Systems’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ImageWare Systems is more favorable than Open Text.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Open Text and ImageWare Systems”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Open Text	$5.17 billion	1.91	$435.87 million	$1.65	23.65
ImageWare Systems	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Open Text has higher revenue and earnings than ImageWare Systems.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

70.4% of Open Text shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 2.2% of ImageWare Systems shares are held by institutional investors. 10.6% of Open Text shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 37.7% of ImageWare Systems shares are held 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 Open Text and ImageWare Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Open Text	8.43%	22.52%	6.72%
ImageWare Systems	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

Open Text beats ImageWare Systems on 7 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Open Text

Open Text Corporation provides information management software and solutions. The company offers content services, which includes content collaboration and intelligent capture to records management, collaboration, e-signatures, and archiving; and operates experience cloud platform that provides customer experience and web content management, digital asset management, customer analytics, AI and insights, e-discovery, digital fax, omnichannel communications, secure messaging, and voice of customer, as well as customer journey, testing, and segmentation. It also provides cybersecurity cloud solutions to protect, prevent, detect, respond and quickly recover from threats across endpoints, network, applications, IT infrastructure and data, AI-led threat intelligence; and to protect critical information and processes through threat intelligence, forensics, identity, encryption, and cloud-based application security. In addition, the company offers business network cloud for digital supply chains and secure e-commerce ecosystems including digitize and automate procure-to-pay and order-to-cash processes; IT operations management cloud for automation and advancement of IT support and asset management; and analytics & AI cloud solutions that offers artificial intelligence with practical usage to provide organizations with actionable insights and better automation, such as visualizations, advanced natural language processing and understanding, and integrated computer vision capabilities. In addition, it provides application automation cloud, developers cloud, and services. Further, it has strategic partnerships with SAP SE, Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Salesforce.com Corporation, DXC Technology Company, Accenture plc, Capgemini Technology Services SAS, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, and Tata Consultancy Services. Open Text Corporation was incorporated in 1991 and is headquartered in Waterloo, Canada.

About ImageWare Systems

ImageWare Systems, Inc. operates as a biometric solution provider in the United States and internationally. It offers Imageware Biometric Engine, a biometric identity and authentication database built for multi-biometric enrollment, management, and authentication. The company also provides Imageware Proof that enables an entity to prove user identity from their biometrics, government issued ID, and credit bureau data; Imageware Capture that enables the capture of biographic and biometric details, such as face, fingerprint, palm print, and iris, as well as scars, marks, and tattoos; Imageware Identify, which enables a user to identify others from their biometrics; and Imageware Investigate that enables an officer to create digital lineups. In addition, it offers Imageware Credential that enables a user to design, build, and print badges for access control systems, which includes tickets, smart badges, wristbands, personal identity verification cards, and others; Imageware Digital ID, a decentralized identity service that enables self-sovereign identity underpinned by blockchain technology tied to biometrics; and Imageware Authenticate, which enables users to leverage multimodal biometrics hosted in a central server or cloud to log in to services and applications from a device. Further, the company provides Law Enforcement 2.0 solution which enables state, local, and federal agencies to capture, archive, search, retrieve, and share digital images, fingerprints, and other biometrics, as well as criminal history records on a stand-alone, networked, wireless or browser-based platform. It serves airports and seaports, education, financial, government, healthcare, and law enforcement industries. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.