Contrasting Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) & JFrog (NASDAQ:FROG)

JFrog (NASDAQ:FROG) and Sprout Social (NASDAQ:SPT) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, earnings and profitability.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.0% of JFrog shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.8% of JFrog shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.6% of Sprout Social shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

JFrog has a beta of 1.24, suggesting that its stock price is 24% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sprout Social has a beta of 1.01, suggesting that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares JFrog and Sprout Social”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
JFrog	$531.84 million	21.41	-$71.82 million	($0.37)	-249.65
Sprout Social	$457.55 million	1.66	-$43.33 million	($0.50)	-25.08

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for JFrog and Sprout Social, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
JFrog	1	1	21	0	2.87
Sprout Social	2	4	4	0	2.20

JFrog presently has a consensus target price of $109.71, suggesting a potential upside of 18.78%. Sprout Social has a consensus target price of $10.88, suggesting a potential downside of 13.28%. Given JFrog’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe JFrog is more favorable than Sprout Social.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
JFrog	-7.35%	-2.71%	-1.80%
Sprout Social	-6.13%	-8.80%	-3.64%

Summary

JFrog beats Sprout Social on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About JFrog

JFrog Ltd. provides end-to-end hybrid software supply chain platform in the United States, Israel, India, and internationally. The company offers JFrog Artifactory, a package repository that allows teams and organizations to store, update, and manage their software packages; JFrog Curation that functions as a guardian outside the software development pipeline, controlling the admission of packages into an organization, primarily from open source or public repositories; JFrog Xray, which scans JFrog Artifactory to secure all software packages; JFrog Advanced Security, an optional add-on for select JFrog subscriptions; and JFrog Distribution that provides software package distribution. It also provides JFrog Artifactory Edge that utilizes and leverages metadata from JFrog Artifactory to facilitate the transfer of the incremental changes in software packages from their previous versions; JFrog Mission Control, a platform control panel that provides a view of moving pieces of an organization’s software supply chain workflow; JFrog Insight, a DevOps intelligence tool; JFrog Connect, a device management solution that allows companies to manage software updates and monitor performance in IoT device fleets; and JFrog Pipelines, a continuous integration and delivery tool for automating and orchestrating the movement of software packages. In addition, the company provides JFrog Pro that provides access to the universal version of JFrog Artifactory and ongoing updates, upgrades, and bug fixes; JFrog Pro X, a self-hosted-only subscription; JFrog Enterprise X, which offers cluster configuration, federated repositories, multi-region replication, larger enterprise-scale deployments, service-level agreement support, and deeper security; and JFrog Enterprise Plus, a full platform subscription option. It serves technology, financial services, retail, healthcare, and telecommunications organizations. JFrog Ltd. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

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.