Financial Analysis: Workiva (NYSE:WK) & Lightspeed Commerce (NYSE:LSPD)

Workiva (NYSE:WK) and Lightspeed Commerce (NYSE:LSPD) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, earnings and profitability.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.2% of Workiva shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 68.7% of Lightspeed Commerce shares are held by institutional investors. 4.8% of Workiva shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Workiva has a beta of 0.53, suggesting that its stock price is 47% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Lightspeed Commerce has a beta of 1.84, suggesting that its stock price is 84% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Workiva and Lightspeed Commerce’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Workiva	4.87%	-140.17%	3.74%
Lightspeed Commerce	-7.81%	1.06%	0.95%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Workiva and Lightspeed Commerce, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Workiva	1	0	9	1	2.91
Lightspeed Commerce	3	9	4	0	2.06

Workiva currently has a consensus target price of $87.00, indicating a potential upside of 25.03%. Lightspeed Commerce has a consensus target price of $11.39, indicating a potential upside of 17.63%. Given Workiva’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Workiva is more favorable than Lightspeed Commerce.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Workiva and Lightspeed Commerce”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Workiva	$884.57 million	4.41	-$26.17 million	$0.82	84.86
Lightspeed Commerce	$1.23 billion	1.09	-$144.41 million	($0.70)	-13.84

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

Summary

Workiva beats Lightspeed Commerce on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Workiva

Workiva Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based reporting solutions in the United States and internationally. The company offers Workiva platform, a multi-tenant cloud software that provides data linking capabilities; audit trail services; administrators access management; and allows customers to connect data from multiple enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and customer relationship management systems, as well as other third-party cloud and on-premise applications. It serves public and private companies, government agencies, and higher-education institutions. Workiva Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Ames, Iowa.

About Lightspeed Commerce

Lightspeed Commerce Inc. engages in sale of cloud-based software subscriptions and payments solutions for small and midsize businesses, retailers, restaurants, and golf course operators in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and internationally. Its Software as a Service platform enables customers to engage with consumers, manage operations, accept payments, etc. The company's cloud platforms are designed interrelated elements, such as omni-channel consumer experience, a comprehensive back-office operations management suite to improve customers' efficiency and insight, and the facilitation of payments. Its platform functionalities include full omni-channel capabilities, point of sale (POS), product and menu management, employee and inventory management, analytics and reporting, multi-location connectivity, order-ahead and curbside pickup functionality, loyalty, and customer management solutions. The company also offers tailored financial solutions, such as Lightspeed Retail, Lightspeed eCommerce, Lightspeed Restaurant, and Lightspeed B2B solutions. In addition, it sells hardware, including tablets, customer facing displays, receipt printers, networking hardware, cash drawers, payment terminals, servers, stands, bar-code scanners, and an assortment of accessories, as well as provides installation and implementation services. The company was formerly known as Lightspeed POS Inc. and changed its name to Lightspeed Commerce Inc. in August 2021. Lightspeed Commerce Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.