Cision (NYSE:CISN) and HubSpot (NYSE:HUBS) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.
Risk & Volatility
Cision has a beta of 0.62, suggesting that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, HubSpot has a beta of 1.71, suggesting that its stock price is 71% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of current ratings for Cision and HubSpot, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Cision | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2.50 |
| HubSpot | 0 | 8 | 15 | 0 | 2.65 |
Cision presently has a consensus target price of $14.50, indicating a potential upside of 109.54%. HubSpot has a consensus target price of $190.20, indicating a potential downside of 4.75%. Given Cision’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Cision is more favorable than HubSpot.
Profitability
This table compares Cision and HubSpot’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Cision | -1.84% | 27.68% | 5.30% |
| HubSpot | -9.92% | -7.93% | -3.01% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Cision and HubSpot’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Cision | $730.37 million | 1.41 | -$24.39 million | $0.83 | 8.34 |
| HubSpot | $512.98 million | 16.54 | -$63.82 million | ($1.02) | -195.76 |
Cision has higher revenue and earnings than HubSpot. HubSpot is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cision, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
54.1% of Cision shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.9% of HubSpot shares are held by institutional investors. 4.8% of Cision shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.3% of HubSpot shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Summary
Cision beats HubSpot on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
Cision Company Profile
Cision Ltd. provides public relations (PR) software, media distribution, media intelligence, and related professional services to businesses worldwide. The company enables public relations and communications professionals to manage, execute, and measure their strategic PR and communications programs. It offers Cision Communications Cloud, a cloud-based platform that enables companies and brands to build relationships with influencers and buyers in order to amplify their marketplace influence; and provides media database that offers access to influencers when planning a campaign, as well as to schedule and record various interactions with contacts. The company also provides PR Newswire that offers wire distribution services, as well as a suite of products and services for investor relations professionals, including distribution of earnings and other material news, Webcasts and conference calls, IR Website hosting, and virtual investor conferences. In addition, it offers media monitoring software that tracks and monitors content on digital, print, social, and broadcast sources. Further, the company enables its customers to assess media coverage by collecting and analyzing data and metrics on audience engagement, campaign reach and effectiveness, sentiment, and competitive benchmarking to quantify campaign results of earned media strategies, as well as provides data-driven insights that inform the creation of future campaigns and marketing investment. Cision Ltd. was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.
HubSpot Company Profile
HubSpot, Inc. provides a cloud-based marketing and sales software platform for businesses in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company’s software platform includes integrated applications, such as customer relationship management, search engine optimization, blogging, Website content management, messaging, chatbots, social media, marketing automation, email, predictive lead scoring, sales productivity, ticketing and helpdesk tools, customer NPS surveys, analytics, and reporting. It also offers professional, as well as phone and/or email and chat based support services. It serves mid-market business-to-business companies. The company markets its products through inbound go-to-market approach, marketing agency, and sales partners. HubSpot, Inc. was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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