Head-To-Head Comparison: Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) vs. Bridgeline Digital (NASDAQ:BLIN)

Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) and Bridgeline Digital (NASDAQ:BLIN) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings, institutional ownership and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

Sprout Social has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bridgeline Digital has a beta of 0.83, suggesting that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Sprout Social and Bridgeline Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sprout Social	-12.70%	-25.95%	-10.67%
Bridgeline Digital	-16.81%	-25.79%	-16.08%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Sprout Social and Bridgeline Digital”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sprout Social	$430.80 million	1.42	-$61.97 million	($0.95)	-10.94
Bridgeline Digital	$15.38 million	1.03	-$1.96 million	($0.27)	-4.85

Bridgeline Digital has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Sprout Social. Sprout Social is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Bridgeline Digital, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Sprout Social and Bridgeline Digital, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sprout Social	1	6	6	0	2.38
Bridgeline Digital	2	0	1	0	1.67

Sprout Social presently has a consensus price target of $27.36, indicating a potential upside of 163.37%. Bridgeline Digital has a consensus price target of $4.62, indicating a potential upside of 252.67%. Given Bridgeline Digital’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Bridgeline Digital is more favorable than Sprout Social.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

15.1% of Bridgeline Digital shares are held by institutional investors. 10.1% of Sprout Social shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 23.5% of Bridgeline Digital shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

About Sprout Social

Sprout Social, Inc. designs, develops, and operates a web-based social media management platform in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company provides cloud software for social messaging, data and workflows in a unified system of record, intelligence, and action. It offers integrated tools, such as social engagement/response; publishing; reporting and analytics; social listening and business intelligence; reputation management; social commerce; employee advocacy; and automation and workflows. In addition, the company provides smart inbox, social customer relationship management, social monitoring and alerts, customer service tools, and automation; and centralized content planning, creation, and publishing, automated scheduling, content performance reporting, suggested content, message approval workflows, publishing permissions and governance, and content and asset libraries. Further, it offers social media; content performance, customer service and team, custom report builder, and reporting API; and market research, brand health, competitive insights, consumer trends, and product feedback; and social commerce, reputation management, employee advocacy, mobile applications, and chat bot creation and management. Additionally, the company offers professional services consisting of consulting and training services. It serves social and community management; public relations; marketing; influencer marketing; customer service and care; commerce, sales and customer acquisition; recruiting and hiring, product development, and business strategy; and small-and-medium-sized businesses, mid-market companies, enterprises, marketing agencies, government, non-profit, and educational institutions. Sprout Social, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

About Bridgeline Digital

Bridgeline Digital, Inc. operates as a marketing technology company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company offers HawkSearch, a site search, recommendation, and personalization application for marketers, merchandisers, and developers; Celebros Search, a commerce-oriented site search product that provides natural language processing with artificial intelligence; and Woorank, a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) audit tool that generates an instant performance audit of the site's technical, on-page, and off-page SEO. It also provides Bridgeline TruPresence, a web content management and eCommerce platform to support the needs of multi-unit organizations and franchises; Bridgeline Unbound, a technology suite that empower marketers to easily manage their digital experiences and create personalized customer journeys; and OrchestraCMS, a digital experience platform that enables development of custom solutions, third-party integrations, and delivery of digital transformation initiatives on the Salesforce platform. In addition, the company offers digital engagement services comprising digital strategy, web design and web development, usability engineering, information architecture, and SEO, as well as hosting services. It serves vertical markets, such as industrial distributors and wholesalers, franchises and enterprises, manufacturers, eCommerce retailers, health services and life sciences, technology, credit unions and banks, and associations and foundations through its direct sales force. The company was formerly known as Bridgeline Software, Inc. Bridgeline Digital, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is based in Woburn, Massachusetts.