Analyzing Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) and ZenaTech (NASDAQ:ZENA)

Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) and ZenaTech (NASDAQ:ZENA) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation and earnings.

Profitability

This table compares Skillsoft and ZenaTech’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Skillsoft	-26.02%	40.31%	2.05%
ZenaTech	N/A	N/A	N/A

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Skillsoft and ZenaTech”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Skillsoft	$530.99 million	0.13	-$121.91 million	($15.84)	-0.49
ZenaTech	$1.96 million	42.47	-$3.27 million	($0.39)	-9.49

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

87.0% of Skillsoft shares are held by institutional investors. 15.5% of Skillsoft shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Skillsoft and ZenaTech, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Skillsoft	1	1	0	0	1.50
ZenaTech	1	0	1	0	2.00

ZenaTech has a consensus target price of $9.00, indicating a potential upside of 143.24%. Given ZenaTech’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe ZenaTech is more favorable than Skillsoft.

Risk and Volatility

Skillsoft has a beta of 1.73, meaning that its share price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ZenaTech has a beta of 14.11, meaning that its share price is 1,311% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

ZenaTech beats Skillsoft on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Skillsoft

Skillsoft Corp. provides content and platform and instructor-led training services in the United States and internationally. The company's Content & Platform segment engages in the sale, marketing, and delivery of its content learning solutions in areas, such as leadership and business, technology and developer, and compliance comprising individualized coaching, as well as technical skill areas. This segment also offers Percipio, an AI-driven online learning platform that delivers a learning experience through SaaS solutions. Its Instructor-Led Training segment provides training solutions, including information technology and business skills for corporations and their employees by guiding its customers throughout their lifelong technology learning journey by offering relevant and up-to-date skills training through instructor-led and self-paced, vendor certified, and other proprietary offerings. The company markets and sells their offerings to businesses of many sizes, government agencies, educational institutions, and resellers. Skillsoft Corp. is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

About ZenaTech

ZenaTech, Inc., an enterprise software technology company, develops cloud-based software applications in Canada. It provides cryptocurrency wallets and cloud-based enterprise software solutions for the agriculture industry; cloud-based enterprise software solutions for the medical records industry; safety and compliance management software and mobile solutions; field management software and mobile solutions; integrated cloud-based enterprise software and hardware drone technology solutions for various industries; and browser-based enterprise software applications for public safety. ZenaTech, Inc. was formerly known as ZenaDrone, Inc. and changed its name to ZenaTech, Inc. on October 5, 2020. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is based in Toronto, Canada.