Head-To-Head Analysis: PAR Technology (NYSE:PAR) & Alarm.com (NASDAQ:ALRM)

PAR Technology (NYSE:PAR) and Alarm.com (NASDAQ:ALRM) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for PAR Technology and Alarm.com, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
PAR Technology	1	2	5	0	2.50
Alarm.com	1	3	0	1	2.20

PAR Technology currently has a consensus target price of $24.61, suggesting a potential upside of 55.86%. Alarm.com has a consensus target price of $55.00, suggesting a potential downside of 2.96%. Given PAR Technology’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe PAR Technology is more favorable than Alarm.com.

Profitability

This table compares PAR Technology and Alarm.com’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
PAR Technology	-14.52%	-1.62%	-0.97%
Alarm.com	11.11%	15.65%	7.04%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

91.7% of Alarm.com shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.3% of PAR Technology shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of Alarm.com shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk and Volatility

PAR Technology has a beta of 1.35, meaning that its share price is 35% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Alarm.com has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares PAR Technology and Alarm.com”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
PAR Technology	$455.55 million	1.43	-$84.46 million	($1.76)	-8.97
Alarm.com	$1.01 billion	2.77	$132.57 million	$2.26	25.08

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

Summary

Alarm.com beats PAR Technology on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About PAR Technology

PAR Technology Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides omnichannel cloud-based hardware and software solutions to the restaurant and retail industries worldwide. The Restaurant/Retail segment offers PUNCHH, an enterprise-grade customer loyalty and engagement solution; MENU, an eCommerce platform for restaurant brands; BRINK POS, an open cloud, point-of-sale solution; PAR PAYMENT SERVICES, a merchant services business that enables electronic payment and processing services for businesses; and DATA CENTRAL, a back-office solution that leverages business intelligence and automation technologies. This segment also offers Point-of-Sale Hardware; wireless headsets for drive-thru order-taking; and kitchen display systems, payment devices, cash drawers, printers, and other peripherals. In addition, this segment provides services, such as hardware repair, installation and implementation, training, and on-site and technical support services. The Government segment provides intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions; mission systems operations and maintenance, and commercial software products; systems engineering support and software-based solutions; satellite and teleport facility operation and maintenance, engineering, and installation services comprising inside and outside plant services, and maintenance of infrastructure and information systems; satellite ground system support comprising operations and maintenance, sustainment, upgrades, communications security management, anomaly response/resolution, process improvement, emergency response, and disaster recovery services; and information technology infrastructure library services to the United States Department of Defense, intelligence community (IC), and other federal agencies. This segment also offers various IC support services, systems integration, situational awareness solutions, and mission readiness support services. The company was founded in 1968 and is based in New Hartford, New York.

About Alarm.com

Alarm.com Holdings, Inc. provides various Internet of Things (IoT) and solutions for residential, multi-family, small business, and enterprise commercial markets in North America and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Alarm.com and Other. It offers solutions to control and monitor security systems, as well as to IoT devices, including door locks, garage doors, thermostats, and video cameras; and video monitoring and analytics solutions, such as video analytics, escalated events, video doorbells, intelligent integration, live streaming, secure cloud storage, and video alerts. The company also provides scenes, video analytics triggers, thermostat schedules, responsive savings, precision comfort, energy usage monitoring, places feature, whole home water safety, and solar monitoring solutions, as well as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning monitoring services. In addition, it offers demand response programs, commercial grade video, commercial video analytics, access control, cell connectors, enterprise dashboard and multi-site management, energy savings, protection for valuables and inventory, temperature monitoring, and daily safeguard solutions. Further, the company provides a permission-based online portal that provides account management, sales, marketing, training, and support tools; a unified interface that displays key operational and customer experience indicators, including technician performance, system reliability and customer engagement metrics; installation and support services; MobileTech Application and Remote Toolkit; video health reports; smart gateway; AI-powered enhancements to professional monitoring and false alarm reduction; Web services and business intelligence; sales, marketing, and training services; and home builder programs. Additionally, it offers electric utility grid and water management, indoor gunshot detection, and health and wellness and data-rich emergency response solutions. The company was founded in 2000 and is based in Tysons, Virginia.