Reviewing ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) & Upland Software (NASDAQ:UPLD)

Upland Software (NASDAQ:UPLD) and ServiceNow (NYSE:NOW) are both technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

77.8% of Upland Software shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.2% of ServiceNow shares are owned by institutional investors. 14.6% of Upland Software shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of ServiceNow shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Upland Software and ServiceNow, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Upland Software	1	0	2	0	2.33
ServiceNow	2	4	35	1	2.83

Upland Software presently has a consensus price target of $12.50, suggesting a potential upside of 246.26%. ServiceNow has a consensus price target of $146.46, suggesting a potential upside of 6.22%. Given Upland Software’s higher probable upside, equities analysts clearly believe Upland Software is more favorable than ServiceNow.

Risk and Volatility

Upland Software has a beta of 1.43, suggesting that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ServiceNow has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Upland Software and ServiceNow”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Upland Software	$216.88 million	0.05	-$38.90 million	($14.43)	-0.25
ServiceNow	$14.73 billion	9.68	$1.75 billion	$1.60	86.18

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

Profitability

This table compares Upland Software and ServiceNow’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Upland Software	-18.50%	-46.06%	6.92%
ServiceNow	11.34%	16.45%	7.68%

Summary

ServiceNow beats Upland Software on 12 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Upland Software

Upland Software, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based software applications under the Upland brand name in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. It offers software applications that enable organizations to plan, manage and execute projects, and work in the areas of marketing, sales, contact center, knowledge management, project management, information technology, business operations, human resources, and legal. The company also provides professional services, such as implementation, data extraction, integration and configuration, and training services, as well as customer support services. It serves corporations, government agencies, and small and medium-sized businesses in the financial, consulting, technology, manufacturing, media, telecommunication, insurance, non-profit healthcare, life sciences, retail, and hospitality sectors. The company was formerly known as Silverback Enterprise Group, Inc. and changed its name to Upland Software, Inc. in November 2013. Upland Software, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About ServiceNow

ServiceNow, Inc. provides end to-end intelligent workflow automation platform solutions for digital businesses in the North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company operates the Now platform for end-to-end digital transformation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation, process mining, performance analytics, and collaboration and development tools. It also provides asset management, cloud observability, integrated risk management; information technology (IT) service management applications; IT service management product suite for enterprise's employees, customers, and partners; strategic portfolio management product suite; IT operations management product that connects a customer's physical and cloud-based IT infrastructure; IT asset management; and security operations that connects with internal and third party. In addition, the company offers integrated risk management product to manage risk and resilience; environmental, social and governance management product; human resources, legal, and workplace service delivery products; customer service management product; and field service management applications. Further, the company provides app engine product; automation engine; platform privacy and security product; and source-to-pay operations. It serves to government, financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, manufacturing, IT services, technology, oil and gas, education, and consumer products through service providers and resale partners. The company was formerly known as Service-now.com and changed its name to ServiceNow, Inc. in May 2012. ServiceNow, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.