Airship AI (NASDAQ:AISP) vs. i3 Verticals (NASDAQ:IIIV) Head to Head Analysis

Airship AI (NASDAQ:AISP) and i3 Verticals (NASDAQ:IIIV) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, dividends and risk.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

5.9% of Airship AI shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 84.2% of i3 Verticals shares are held by institutional investors. 46.8% of Airship AI shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 60.1% of i3 Verticals shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Airship AI and i3 Verticals, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Airship AI	1	1	0	0	1.50
i3 Verticals	1	3	3	0	2.29

Airship AI currently has a consensus price target of $6.50, suggesting a potential upside of 217.07%. i3 Verticals has a consensus price target of $25.40, suggesting a potential upside of 52.28%. Given Airship AI’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Airship AI is more favorable than i3 Verticals.

Profitability

This table compares Airship AI and i3 Verticals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Airship AI	144.60%	-19.13%	18.72%
i3 Verticals	4.24%	4.49%	3.31%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Airship AI and i3 Verticals”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Airship AI	$15.32 million	4.61	$29.32 million	$0.67	3.06
i3 Verticals	$213.16 million	2.06	$17.87 million	$0.38	43.89

Airship AI has higher earnings, but lower revenue than i3 Verticals. Airship AI is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than i3 Verticals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Airship AI has a beta of 0.63, meaning that its stock price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, i3 Verticals has a beta of 0.78, meaning that its stock price is 22% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

i3 Verticals beats Airship AI on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Airship AI

Airship AI Holdings, Inc. offers AI-driven video, sensor, and data management surveillance platform in the United States. The company provides Airship Acropolis OS, an IP and analog video surveillance; Airship Command, a suite of visualization tools that allows users to view data and evidence ingested from the edge; and Airship Outpost for high-definition recording with user defined low-bit rate video stream encoding. It serves government, public sector, law enforcement, military, and commercial enterprise organizations. The company was formerly known as Super Simple AI, Inc. and changed its name to Airship AI Holdings, Inc. in March 2023. Airship AI Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.

About i3 Verticals

i3 Verticals, Inc. provides integrated payment and software solutions primarily to the public sector and healthcare markets in the United States. It operates in two segments, Software and Services, and Merchant Services. The company offers payment processing services that enables upper and lower court case management, collections, finance and accounting, motor vehicle and carrier registration, e-filing and taxation, license plate inventory, property tax management, utility billing, professional licensing, document workflow, and law enforcement software; assists public schools in completing payment processing functions, including accepting payments for online or at school lunches, and school activities. It also provides software platforms, such as electronic healthcare records and revenue cycle management solutions; insurance adjudication, patient engagement platforms, billing, scheduling, and integrated payments solutions; and workflow software and associated professional services to medical insurance payers. In addition, the company engages in software licenses and subscriptions, transaction-based fees, ongoing software maintenance and support, and other software-related solutions; and payment processing and gateway fees, as well as other related fixed transaction or service fees. Further, it sells equipment, and offers non-software related professional services. The company offers its solutions to clients through direct sales force; distribution partners comprising independent software vendors, independent sales organizations, and value-added resellers. i3 Verticals, Inc. was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.