Contrasting SS&C Technologies (NASDAQ:SSNC) and Asure Software (NASDAQ:ASUR)

Asure Software (NASDAQ:ASUR) and SS&C Technologies (NASDAQ:SSNC) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Asure Software and SS&C Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Asure Software	1	1	2	1	2.60
SS&C Technologies	0	3	6	1	2.80

Asure Software presently has a consensus target price of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 60.30%. SS&C Technologies has a consensus target price of $92.62, indicating a potential upside of 15.88%. Given Asure Software’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Asure Software is more favorable than SS&C Technologies.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

71.6% of Asure Software shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 96.9% of SS&C Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 8.9% of Asure Software shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.0% of SS&C Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Asure Software and SS&C Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Asure Software	-5.42%	8.19%	3.27%
SS&C Technologies	13.16%	21.20%	7.19%

Risk and Volatility

Asure Software has a beta of 0.52, indicating that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SS&C Technologies has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its stock price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Asure Software and SS&C Technologies”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Asure Software	$140.54 million	1.67	-$13.13 million	($0.29)	-27.97
SS&C Technologies	$6.27 billion	2.99	$796.90 million	$3.48	22.97

SS&C Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than Asure Software. Asure Software is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than SS&C Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

SS&C Technologies beats Asure Software on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Asure Software

Asure Software, Inc. engages in the provision of cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) software solutions in the United States. It provides its human resources (HR) tool as Software-as-a-Service that helps various small and medium-sized businesses to build productive workforce to help them stay compliant and allocate resources to grow their business. The company's solutions include Asure Payroll & Tax, an integrated solution that simplifies payroll and automates regulations associated with payroll and taxes, including wages, benefits, overtime, garnishments, tips, direct deposits, and fair labor standard act, as well as federal, state, and local payroll taxes; and Tax Management Solutions, that provides payroll tax processing software and service solutions, as well as bulk filing and processing support of employee retention tax credits, for the payroll service industry, mid-market, and corporate employers. It also provides HR compliance and services, including HR support, which provides an on-demand HR resource library, phone, and email support for various HR issues and compliance, and policy updates; Strategic HR, which provides in-depth support for strategic HR decision making; and Total HR, which provides a complete HR outsourcing solution, for handling HR complexities, such as employee self-service, applicant tracking, onboarding, and compliance. In addition, the company offers Time and Attendance, which provides cost savings and return on investment gains come in the form of strategic use of labor dollars and the elimination of time theft; and AsureMarketplace that automates interactions between its HCM systems with third-party providers. Asure Software, Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About SS&C Technologies

SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. engages in the development and provision of software solutions to the financial services and healthcare industries. It operates through the following geographical segments: United States, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific and Japan, Canada, and the Americas, excluding the United States and Canada. Its products include advent genesis, antares, asset allocators, AWD, axys, BANC mall, BRIX, DST vision, evare, lightning, and moxy. The company was founded by William Charles Stone in March 1986 and is headquartered in Windsor, CT.