LivePerson (LPSN) & The Competition Head-To-Head Survey

LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) is one of 953 publicly-traded companies in the “Software” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare LivePerson to similar companies based on the strength of its profitability, dividends, risk, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

79.8% of LivePerson shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 41.9% of shares of all “Software” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of LivePerson shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 19.9% of shares of all “Software” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for LivePerson and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
LivePerson	1	0	0	0	1.00
LivePerson Competitors	5754	21554	44941	1498	2.57

As a group, “Software” companies have a potential upside of 29.71%. Given LivePerson’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe LivePerson has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Risk and Volatility

LivePerson has a beta of 1.43, indicating that its stock price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LivePerson’s competitors have a beta of 1.34, indicating that their average stock price is 34% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares LivePerson and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
LivePerson	$228.89 million	-$67.23 million	-0.23
LivePerson Competitors	$1.80 billion	$385.91 million	108.60

LivePerson’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than LivePerson. LivePerson is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares LivePerson and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
LivePerson	-51.89%	N/A	-8.39%
LivePerson Competitors	-612.40%	21.13%	-8.86%

Summary

LivePerson competitors beat LivePerson on 9 of the 13 factors compared.

LivePerson Company Profile

LivePerson, Inc. engages in conversational artificial intelligence. It enables brands to leverage the Conversational Cloud's intelligence engine to connect with consumers through an integrated suite of mobile and online business messaging technologies. The company offers the Conversational Cloud, an enterprise-class digital customer conversation platform, which enables businesses and consumers to connect through conversational channels, such as voice, in-app, and mobile messaging. It also provides professional services; LivePerson's Conversational AI, including conversation builder, manager, and intelligence, and intent manager. In addition, it provides Voice AI, conversational intelligence and insights, and integration services. The company sells its products to Fortune 500 companies, Internet businesses, online merchants, automotive dealers, educational institution, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations. It operates in the United States, Canada, Latin America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Asia-Pacific. LivePerson, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, New York.