Contrasting AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) and Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE)

AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) and Backblaze (NASDAQ:BLZE) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for AppFolio and Backblaze, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
AppFolio	0	0	8	0	3.00
Backblaze	1	0	6	1	2.88

AppFolio presently has a consensus target price of $306.00, indicating a potential upside of 31.53%. Backblaze has a consensus target price of $9.33, indicating a potential upside of 100.29%. Given Backblaze’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Backblaze is more favorable than AppFolio.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

85.2% of AppFolio shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.0% of Backblaze shares are held by institutional investors. 4.7% of AppFolio shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of Backblaze 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.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares AppFolio and Backblaze”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
AppFolio	$794.20 million	10.52	$204.07 million	$5.57	41.77
Backblaze	$127.63 million	2.11	-$48.53 million	($0.67)	-6.96

AppFolio has higher revenue and earnings than Backblaze. Backblaze is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AppFolio, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

AppFolio has a beta of 0.78, indicating that its share price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Backblaze has a beta of 1.28, indicating that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares AppFolio and Backblaze’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
AppFolio	22.48%	25.97%	20.95%
Backblaze	-24.37%	-36.40%	-16.15%

Summary

AppFolio beats Backblaze on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About AppFolio

AppFolio, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud business management solutions for the real estate industry in the United States. The company provides a cloud-based platform that enables users to automate and optimize common workflows; tools that assist with leasing, maintenance, and accounting; and other technology and services offered by third parties. It offers AppFolio Property Manager Core, a platform that provides the basic functionalities required to operate a property management business, as well as serves as a system of record; AppFolio Property Manager Plus, which offers housing management, student housing management, complex accounting, leasing insights, large-scale operations support, role-based permissions, stack integrations, and enhanced customer support services; AppFolio Property Manager Max offers customer relationship management functionality, field customization, customer database functionality, and customer success management services; and AppFolio Investment Manager, a software that provides investment management, asset management, and relationship management solutions. The company also provides value-added services that are designed to enhance, automate, and streamline processes and workflows for property management businesses, such as electronic payment, tenant screening, and insurance services. AppFolio, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.

About Backblaze

Backblaze, Inc., a storage cloud platform, provides businesses and consumers cloud services to store, use, and protect data in the United States and internationally. The company offers cloud services through a web-scale software infrastructure built on commodity hardware. It also provides Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, which enables customers to store data, developers to build applications, and partners to expand their use cases. This service is offered as a consumption-based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and serves use cases, such as public, hybrid, and multi-cloud data storage; application development and DevOps; content delivery and edge computing; security and ransomware protection; media management; backup, archive, and tape replacement; repository for analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning; and Internet of Things. In addition, the company offers Backblaze Computer Backup that automatically backs up data from laptops and desktops for businesses and individuals, which provides a subscription-based Software-as-a-Service and serves use cases, including computer backup, ransomware protection, theft and loss protection, and remote access. It serves the public cloud IaaS storage and Data-Protection-as-a-Service markets. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.