Head to Head Survey: Atlassian (NASDAQ:TEAM) and Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW)

Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) and Atlassian (NASDAQ:TEAM) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, dividends, valuation and profitability.

Risk and Volatility

Palo Alto Networks has a beta of 0.93, suggesting that its share price is 7% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Atlassian has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Palo Alto Networks and Atlassian’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Palo Alto Networks	2.67%	8.50%	4.35%
Atlassian	-0.82%	20.99%	4.36%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Palo Alto Networks and Atlassian, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Palo Alto Networks	0	11	38	1	2.80
Atlassian	1	4	25	0	2.80

Palo Alto Networks currently has a consensus price target of $393.02, suggesting a potential upside of 12.67%. Atlassian has a consensus price target of $198.59, suggesting a potential downside of 4.53%. Given Palo Alto Networks’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Palo Alto Networks is more favorable than Atlassian.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Palo Alto Networks and Atlassian”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Palo Alto Networks	$11.48 billion	24.86	$307.00 million	$0.51	683.99
Atlassian	$6.57 billion	8.03	-$53.83 million	($0.19)	-1,094.77

Palo Alto Networks has higher revenue and earnings than Atlassian. Atlassian is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Palo Alto Networks, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

79.8% of Palo Alto Networks shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.5% of Atlassian shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Palo Alto Networks shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 37.6% of Atlassian shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Palo Alto Networks beats Atlassian on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. provides cybersecurity solutions worldwide. The company offers firewall appliances and software; and Panorama, a security management solution for the global control of network security platform as a virtual or a physical appliance. It also provides subscription services covering the areas of threat prevention, malware and persistent threat, URL filtering, laptop and mobile device protection, DNS security, Internet of Things security, SaaS security API, and SaaS security inline, as well as threat intelligence, and data loss prevention. In addition, the company offers cloud security, secure access, security operations, and threat intelligence and security consulting; professional services, including architecture design and planning, implementation, configuration, and firewall migration; education services, such as certifications, as well as online and in-classroom training; and support services. It sells its products and services through its channel partners, as well as directly to medium to large enterprises, service providers, and government entities operating in various industries, including education, energy, financial services, government entities, healthcare, Internet and media, manufacturing, public sector, and telecommunications. Palo Alto Networks, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

About Atlassian

Atlassian Corporation, through its subsidiaries, designs, develops, licenses, and maintains various software products worldwide. Its product portfolio includes Jira Software and Jira Work Management, a project management system that connects technical and business teams so they can better plan, organize, track and manage their work and projects; Confluence, a connected workspace that organizes knowledge across all teams to move work forward; and Trello, a collaboration and organization product that captures and adds structure to fluid and fast-forming work for teams. The company also offers Jira Service Management, an intuitive and flexible service desk product for creating and managing service experiences for various service team providers, such as IT, legal, and HR teams; and Jira Align, an Atlassian's enterprise agility solution designed to help businesses to adapt and respond dynamic business conditions with a focus on value-creation. In addition, it provides Bitbucket, an enterprise-ready Git solution that enables professional dev teams to manage, collaborate, and deploy quality code; Atlassian Access, an enterprise-wide product for enhanced security and centralized administration that works across every Atlassian cloud product; and Jira Product, a prioritization and road mapping tool. Further, the company's portfolio includes Atlas, a teamwork directory; Bamboo, a continuous delivery pipeline; Crowd, a single sign-on; Crucible, a collaborative code review; Fisheye, a search, track, and visualize code change software; and Compass, a developer experience platform. Additionally, it offers Opsgenie, an on-call and alert management software; Sourcetree, a free git client for windows and mac; Statuspage that communicates real-time status to users; Beacon, an intelligent threat detection software; and Atlassian Access that enhance data security and governance for Atlassian Cloud products. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.