Financial Analysis: Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) vs. CLEAR Secure (NYSE:YOU)

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) and CLEAR Secure (NYSE:YOU) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Progress Software and CLEAR Secure, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Progress Software	0	2	5	1	2.88
CLEAR Secure	1	3	5	0	2.44

Progress Software presently has a consensus target price of $52.17, suggesting a potential upside of 27.73%. CLEAR Secure has a consensus target price of $58.29, suggesting a potential upside of 32.57%. Given CLEAR Secure’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe CLEAR Secure is more favorable than Progress Software.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Progress Software and CLEAR Secure”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Progress Software	$999.93 million	1.67	$73.13 million	$2.17	18.82
CLEAR Secure	$900.78 million	6.60	$109.17 million	$1.47	29.91

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

Volatility and Risk

Progress Software has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its stock price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CLEAR Secure has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Progress Software and CLEAR Secure’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Progress Software	9.24%	42.91%	9.09%
CLEAR Secure	14.78%	71.51%	10.90%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

73.8% of CLEAR Secure shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Progress Software shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 29.7% of CLEAR Secure shares are owned by 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.

Dividends

Progress Software pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. CLEAR Secure pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.4%. Progress Software pays out 32.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. CLEAR Secure pays out 40.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. CLEAR Secure has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Progress Software is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Summary

CLEAR Secure beats Progress Software on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation develops, deploys, and manages business applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers OpenEdge, an application development platform for running business-critical applications; Chef, a DevOps/DevSecOps automation software; Developer Tools that consists of software development tooling collection, including .NET and JavaScript UI components for web, desktop and mobile applications, reporting and report management tools, and automated testing and mocking tools; Kemp LoadMaster, an application delivery and security product offering cloud-native, and virtual and hardware load balancers; and Sitefinity, a digital experience platform foundation delivering intelligent and ROI-driving tools for marketers. It also provides MOVEit, a managed file transfer software for managing and controlling the movement of sensitive files and securing them both at-rest and in-transit; DataDirect, a secure data connectivity tools for Relational, NoSQL, Big Data and SaaS data sources; WhatsUp Gold, a network infrastructure monitoring software providing complete visibility of all network devices, servers, virtual machines, and cloud and wireless environments to find and fix network problems; Flowmon, a network security and visibility product with automated response across hybrid cloud ecosystems; Corticon, a decision automation platform to transform user experiences by streamlining and automating complex business rules; MarkLogic, a data agility platform to connect data and metadata; and Semaphore, a Semantic AI platform. The company offers project management, implementation, custom software development, programming, and other services, as well as web-enable applications; and training services. It sells its products to end users, independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, value added resellers, and distributors. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.

About CLEAR Secure

Clear Secure, Inc. operates a secure identity platform under the CLEAR brand name primarily in the United States. Its secure identity platform is a multi-layered infrastructure consisting of front-end, including enrollment, verification, and linking, as well as back-end. The company also offers CLEAR Plus, a consumer aviation subscription service, which enables access to predictable entry lanes in airport security checkpoints, as well as access to broader network; and CLEAR mobile app, which is used to enroll new members and improve the experience for existing members. In addition, it provides RESERVE powered by CLEAR, a virtual queuing technology that provides users with the ability to book a dedicated time slot to go through security at the airport; CLEAR Verified, a B2B offering that extends secure identity platform to partners to create friction-free experiences for their customers; TSA PreCheck Enrollment Provided by CLEAR, as well as online renewal services; Atlas Certified, an automated solution to verify professional licenses and certification data across industries; and Sora ID that enables adding know your customer services to platform offerings, as well as virtual queuing technology that enables customers to manage lines. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in New York, New York. Clear Secure, Inc. is a subsidiary of Alclear Investments, Llc.