Head to Head Survey: Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) versus Upland Software (NASDAQ:UPLD)

Upland Software (NASDAQ:UPLD) and Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability and risk.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upland Software	-18.44%	-34.37%	6.36%
Progress Software	9.24%	42.91%	9.09%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Upland Software and Progress Software”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upland Software	$216.88 million	0.04	-$38.90 million	($14.20)	-0.22
Progress Software	$999.93 million	1.81	$73.13 million	$2.17	20.41

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

Risk & Volatility

Upland Software has a beta of 1.42, indicating that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Progress Software has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its stock price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for Upland Software and Progress Software, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upland Software	1	0	2	0	2.33
Progress Software	0	2	6	1	2.89

Upland Software presently has a consensus price target of $10.50, suggesting a potential upside of 240.91%. Progress Software has a consensus price target of $51.57, suggesting a potential upside of 16.41%. Given Upland Software’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Upland Software is more favorable than Progress Software.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

77.8% of Upland Software shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.6% of Upland Software shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Progress Software shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Progress Software beats Upland Software on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Upland Software

Upland Software, Inc. is an enterprise software company that develops cloud-based applications for managing work, customer relationships and business processes. Its software is designed to help organizations automate workflows, organize information, improve collaboration and measure operational performance across departments. Upland’s product portfolio has included solutions for project and portfolio management, enterprise content management, knowledge management, customer experience, customer service, sales enablement, communications and information technology service management.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation develops software used by organizations to build, deploy, manage and secure business applications and IT environments. Founded in 1981 and headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, the company serves customers around the world. Its products include OpenEdge, an application development and database platform; Sitefinity, a digital experience platform; and tools for data connectivity, application performance monitoring, network management and managed file transfer. Progress also offers Chef for infrastructure automation and Kemp LoadMaster for application delivery and load balancing.