Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE) & AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) Critical Survey

Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE) and AppFolio (NASDAQ:APPF) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Braze and AppFolio, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Braze	1	1	22	0	2.88
AppFolio	0	1	9	0	2.90

Braze presently has a consensus price target of $36.90, suggesting a potential upside of 91.61%. AppFolio has a consensus price target of $252.29, suggesting a potential upside of 62.37%. Given Braze’s higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Braze is more favorable than AppFolio.

Volatility and Risk

Braze has a beta of 0.78, suggesting that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AppFolio has a beta of 0.82, suggesting that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Braze and AppFolio”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Braze	$738.18 million	2.96	-$131.29 million	($1.22)	-15.79
AppFolio	$950.82 million	5.78	$140.92 million	$4.20	37.00

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

Profitability

This table compares Braze and AppFolio’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Braze	-17.78%	-18.75%	-10.60%
AppFolio	15.27%	32.35%	25.69%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

90.5% of Braze shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.2% of AppFolio shares are owned by institutional investors. 18.2% of Braze shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of AppFolio 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

AppFolio beats Braze on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Braze

Braze, Inc. operates a customer engagement platform that provides interactions between consumers and brands worldwide. The company offers Braze software development kits that automatically manage data ingestion and deliver mobile and web notifications, in-application/in-browser interstitial messages, and content cards; REST API that can be used to import or export data or to trigger workflows between Braze and brands' existing technology stacks; Partner Data Integrations, which allow brands to sync user cohorts from partners; Data Transformation, in which brands can programmatically sync and transform user data; and Braze Cloud Data Ingestion that enables brands to harness their customer data. It also offers classification products, including segmentation that can define reusable segments of consumers based upon attributes, events, or predictive propensity scores; segment insights, which allows customers to analyze how segments are performing relative to each other across a set of pre-selected key performance indicators; and predictive suite that allows customers to identify groups of consumers that are of critical business value. In addition, the company provides Canvas, an orchestration tool that allows customers to create journeys, mapping out multi-steps, and cross-channel messaging experiences; campaigns, which allows customers to send one set of single-channel or multi-channel messages to be delivered to customers in a particular user segment; event and API triggering; marketing pressure management; and reporting and analytics. Further, it offers personalization products, such as liquid templating platform, connected content platform, content blocks, intelligent timing and channel, personalized variant, and AI item recommendations, and catalogs; and action products. The company was formerly known as Appboy, Inc. and changed its name to Braze, Inc. in November 2017. Braze, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About AppFolio

AppFolio, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud business management solutions for the real estate industry in the United States. The company provides a cloud-based platform that enables users to automate and optimize common workflows; tools that assist with leasing, maintenance, and accounting; and other technology and services offered by third parties. It offers AppFolio Property Manager Core, a platform that provides the basic functionalities required to operate a property management business, as well as serves as a system of record; AppFolio Property Manager Plus, which offers housing management, student housing management, complex accounting, leasing insights, large-scale operations support, role-based permissions, stack integrations, and enhanced customer support services; AppFolio Property Manager Max offers customer relationship management functionality, field customization, customer database functionality, and customer success management services; and AppFolio Investment Manager, a software that provides investment management, asset management, and relationship management solutions. The company also provides value-added services that are designed to enhance, automate, and streamline processes and workflows for property management businesses, such as electronic payment, tenant screening, and insurance services. AppFolio, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.