Sapiens International (NASDAQ:SPNS) versus Coursera (NYSE:COUR) Head to Head Contrast

Sapiens International (NASDAQ:SPNS) and Coursera (NYSE:COUR) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Sapiens International and Coursera’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sapiens International	12.14%	16.92%	10.87%
Coursera	-16.05%	-16.03%	-10.77%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Sapiens International and Coursera, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sapiens International	1	0	2	0	2.33
Coursera	1	2	8	0	2.64

Sapiens International currently has a consensus price target of $34.33, indicating a potential upside of 10.25%. Coursera has a consensus price target of $16.85, indicating a potential upside of 75.89%. Given Coursera’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Coursera is more favorable than Sapiens International.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sapiens International and Coursera’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sapiens International	$514.58 million	3.34	$62.44 million	$1.12	27.80
Coursera	$635.76 million	2.35	-$116.55 million	($0.69)	-13.88

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

Insider and Institutional Ownership

30.7% of Sapiens International shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.6% of Coursera shares are held by institutional investors. 16.0% of Sapiens International shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 15.9% of Coursera shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

Sapiens International has a beta of 1.17, meaning that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Coursera has a beta of 1.57, meaning that its stock price is 57% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sapiens International beats Coursera on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sapiens International

Sapiens International Corporation N.V. provides software solutions for the insurance industry in North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company provides various solutions for property and casualty commercial and personal lines, life and pensions, and reinsurance fields. It offers IDITSuite, an AI powered, end-to-end insurance software; DigitalSuite, a cloud-native, future-proof digital engagement platform; IDITGo, a pre-configured, data-enriched insurance launch and accelerator platform solutions; consultancy services for property and casualty commercial lines; and Tia Enterprise solution for customer engagement. The company also provides CoreSuite, an end-to-end cloud and digital PAS for individual and group products across life, health, wealth, and pensions; CustomerConnect, a dynamic self-service and persona-based portal to engage with insureds; AgentConnect, a portal for agents and brokers to focus on sales enablement, customer retention, and increasing customer value; and ReinsuranceMaster, a reinsurance automation software that provides insurers full financial control and flexibility over their entire reinsurance process. The company was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Holon, Israel.

About Coursera

Coursera, Inc. operates an online educational content platform in the United States, Europe, Africa, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Consumer, Enterprise, and Degrees. The company offers guided projects, courses, and specializations, as well as online degrees; and certificates for entry-level professional, non-entry level professional, university, and MasterTrack. It offers its products to individuals, enterprise, business, campus, and government. The company was formerly known as Dkandu, Inc. and changed its name to Coursera, Inc. in April 2012. Coursera, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.