Head-To-Head Review: Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) vs. PROS (NYSE:PRO)

PROS (NYSE:PRO) and Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

94.3% of PROS shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.8% of Adobe shares are held by institutional investors. 4.0% of PROS shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Adobe 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.

Volatility and Risk

PROS has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Adobe has a beta of 1.53, suggesting that its share price is 53% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for PROS and Adobe, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PROS	1	6	1	0	2.00
Adobe	3	12	13	1	2.41

PROS currently has a consensus target price of $21.65, suggesting a potential downside of 6.88%. Adobe has a consensus target price of $414.22, suggesting a potential upside of 24.28%. Given Adobe’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Adobe is more favorable than PROS.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares PROS and Adobe”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PROS	$330.37 million	3.40	-$20.48 million	($0.31)	-75.00
Adobe	$23.77 billion	5.87	$7.13 billion	$16.71	19.95

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

Profitability

This table compares PROS and Adobe’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PROS	-3.32%	N/A	-2.26%
Adobe	30.00%	61.28%	25.25%

Summary

Adobe beats PROS on 13 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PROS

PROS Holdings, Inc. provides software solutions that optimize the processes of selling and shopping in the digital economy in Europe, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. The company offers PROS Smart Configure Price Quote that improves sales productivity and accelerate deal velocity by automating common sales tasks; and PROS Smart Price Optimization and Management, which enables businesses to optimize, personalize, and harmonize pricing. It also provides PROS Airline Revenue Optimization; PROS Airline Revenue Management solution that delivers algorithmic forecasting and network optimization for the travel industry; PROS Airline Real-Time Dynamic Pricing, which offers accurate booking class availability and seat prices; PROS Dynamic Ancillary Pricing, an AI-based reinforcement learning algorithm; PROS Airline Group Sales Optimizer that enables airlines and their travel agent partners to create and manage group bookings, contracts, policies, and payments; and PROS Corporate Sales, a solution that enables airlines to create commercial agreements with corporate customers. In addition, the company provides PROS Digital Retail, a configurable end-to-end solution for airlines to optimize the traveler experience from inspiration to post-trip; PROS Dynamic Offers; and PROS Digital Offer Marketing solutions comprising airTRFX, airModules, airWire, and airSEM platforms. Further, it provides software-related services, such as implementation, configuration, consulting, training, maintenance, and support services. The company markets and sells its solutions to customers in various industries, including automotive and industrial manufacturing, transportation and logistics, chemicals and energy, food and consumables, beverages, healthcare, insurance, technology, and travel through its direct sales force, partners, resellers, and systems integrators. PROS Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

About Adobe

Adobe Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified software company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Digital Media, Digital Experience, and Publishing and Advertising. The Digital Media segment offers products, services, and solutions that enable individuals, teams, and enterprises to create, publish, and promote content; and Document Cloud, a unified cloud-based document services platform. Its flagship product is Creative Cloud, a subscription service that allows members to access its creative products. This segment serves content creators, students, workers, marketers, educators, enthusiasts, and communicators. The Digital Experience segment provides an integrated platform and set of applications and services that enable brands and businesses to create, manage, execute, measure, monetize, and optimize customer experiences from analytics to commerce. This segment serves marketers, advertisers, agencies, publishers, merchandisers, merchants, web analysts, data scientists, developers, and executives across the C-suite. The Publishing and Advertising segment offers products and services, such as e-learning solutions, technical document publishing, web conferencing, document and forms platform, web application development, and high-end printing, as well as Advertising Cloud offerings. It also provides consulting, technical support, and learning services. The company offers its products and services directly to enterprise customers through its sales force and local field offices, as well as to end users through app stores and through its website at adobe.com. It also distributes products and services through distributors, value-added resellers, systems integrators, software vendors and developers, retailers, and original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as Adobe Systems Incorporated and changed its name to Adobe Inc. in October 2018. Adobe Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.