Appian (APPN) vs. Its Rivals Financial Contrast

Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) is one of 953 publicly-traded companies in the “Software” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Appian to similar companies based on the strength of its dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Risk and Volatility

Appian has a beta of 0.83, indicating that its stock price is 17% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Appian’s competitors have a beta of 1.34, indicating that their average stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

52.7% of Appian shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.9% of shares of all “Software” companies are owned by institutional investors. 42.8% of Appian shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 19.9% of shares of all “Software” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Appian and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Appian	-0.72%	-43.13%	5.33%
Appian Competitors	-607.19%	26.73%	-8.88%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Appian and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Appian	$842.93 million	$1.23 million	-654.38
Appian Competitors	$1.80 billion	$386.86 million	108.98

Appian’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Appian. Appian is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Appian and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Appian	2	4	2	0	2.00
Appian Competitors	5761	21571	44959	1498	2.57

Appian presently has a consensus target price of $44.33, suggesting a potential downside of 15.31%. As a group, “Software” companies have a potential upside of 29.60%. Given Appian’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Appian has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Summary

Appian competitors beat Appian on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

About Appian

Appian Corporation develops a low-code platform that helps organizations build and manage business applications and automate complex processes. Its offerings combine application development tools with capabilities for workflow automation, case management, robotic process automation, and process mining. Founded in 1999 by Matt Calkins, Appian serves businesses and government organizations in a range of industries, including financial services, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, and the public sector.