Contrasting Asana (NYSE:ASAN) and Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR)

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR – Get Rating) and Asana (NYSE:ASAN – Get Rating) are both mid-cap construction companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Altair Engineering and Asana’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Altair Engineering	$572.22 million	10.19	-$43.43 million	($0.73)	-98.98
Asana	$547.21 million	8.04	-$407.77 million	($2.04)	-10.06

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

61.7% of Altair Engineering shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 28.2% of Asana shares are owned by institutional investors. 22.7% of Altair Engineering shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 61.9% of Asana shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Altair Engineering and Asana’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Altair Engineering	-9.84%	-0.23%	-0.11%
Asana	-74.52%	-159.46%	-49.22%

Risk and Volatility

Altair Engineering has a beta of 1.5, indicating that its share price is 50% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Asana has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Altair Engineering and Asana, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Altair Engineering	0	1	5	0	2.83
Asana	2	9	4	0	2.13

Altair Engineering currently has a consensus target price of $71.17, indicating a potential downside of 1.51%. Asana has a consensus target price of $21.84, indicating a potential upside of 6.38%. Given Asana’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Asana is more favorable than Altair Engineering.

Summary

Altair Engineering beats Asana on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Altair Engineering

(Get Rating)

Altair Engineering, Inc. engages in the provision of software and cloud solutions for product design & development, high performance cloud computing, and data intelligence. It operates through the following segments: Software and Client Engineering Services. The Software segment includes a portfolio of software products, as well as solvers and optimization technology products, modelling and visualization tools. The Client Engineering Services segment engages in the provision of client engineering services to support customers with long-term, ongoing product design and development expertise. The company was founded by James Ralph Scapa in 1985 and is headquartered in Troy, MI.

About Asana

(Get Rating)

Asana, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a work management platform for individuals, team leads, and executives in the United States and internationally. The company's platform enables teams to orchestrate work from daily tasks to cross-functional strategic initiatives; and manages product launches, marketing campaigns, and organization-wide goal settings. It serves customers in industries, such as technology, retail, education, non-profit, government, healthcare, media, and financial services. The company was formerly known as Smiley Abstractions, Inc. and changed its name to Asana, Inc. in July 2009. Asana, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.