Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) & MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) Head-To-Head Contrast

MARA (NASDAQ:MARA) and Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) are both technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares MARA and Progress Software”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MARA	$907.09 million	4.96	-$1.31 billion	($9.16)	-1.27
Progress Software	$977.83 million	1.71	$73.13 million	$2.06	19.83

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

Risk and Volatility

MARA has a beta of 5.32, meaning that its stock price is 432% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Progress Software has a beta of 0.82, meaning that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

44.5% of MARA shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of MARA shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Progress Software shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for MARA and Progress Software, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MARA	3	1	8	0	2.42
Progress Software	0	2	5	0	2.71

MARA presently has a consensus target price of $18.70, indicating a potential upside of 60.65%. Progress Software has a consensus target price of $52.17, indicating a potential upside of 27.70%. Given MARA’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe MARA is more favorable than Progress Software.

Profitability

This table compares MARA and Progress Software’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MARA	-429.71%	-26.05%	-12.73%
Progress Software	8.87%	43.07%	8.78%

Summary

Progress Software beats MARA on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MARA

MARA Holdings, Inc. operates as a digital asset technology company that mines digital assets with a focus on the bitcoin ecosystem in United States. The company was formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to MARA Holdings, Inc. in August 2024. MARA Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation develops, deploys, and manages business applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers OpenEdge, an application development platform for running business-critical applications; Chef, a DevOps/DevSecOps automation software; Developer Tools that consists of software development tooling collection, including .NET and JavaScript UI components for web, desktop and mobile applications, reporting and report management tools, and automated testing and mocking tools; Kemp LoadMaster, an application delivery and security product offering cloud-native, and virtual and hardware load balancers; and Sitefinity, a digital experience platform foundation delivering intelligent and ROI-driving tools for marketers. It also provides MOVEit, a managed file transfer software for managing and controlling the movement of sensitive files and securing them both at-rest and in-transit; DataDirect, a secure data connectivity tools for Relational, NoSQL, Big Data and SaaS data sources; WhatsUp Gold, a network infrastructure monitoring software providing complete visibility of all network devices, servers, virtual machines, and cloud and wireless environments to find and fix network problems; Flowmon, a network security and visibility product with automated response across hybrid cloud ecosystems; Corticon, a decision automation platform to transform user experiences by streamlining and automating complex business rules; MarkLogic, a data agility platform to connect data and metadata; and Semaphore, a Semantic AI platform. The company offers project management, implementation, custom software development, programming, and other services, as well as web-enable applications; and training services. It sells its products to end users, independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, value added resellers, and distributors. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.