Comparing Asana (NYSE:ASAN) and KWESST Micro Systems (NASDAQ:KWE)

Asana (NYSE:ASAN) and KWESST Micro Systems (NASDAQ:KWE) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, institutional ownership, profitability and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares Asana and KWESST Micro Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Asana	-39.39%	-75.22%	-26.20%
KWESST Micro Systems	-1,045.44%	-289.30%	-117.92%

Volatility & Risk

Asana has a beta of 1.23, meaning that its share price is 23% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, KWESST Micro Systems has a beta of 1.48, meaning that its share price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

26.2% of Asana shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.4% of KWESST Micro Systems shares are held by institutional investors. 63.3% of Asana shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and recommmendations for Asana and KWESST Micro Systems, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Asana	4	4	3	0	1.91
KWESST Micro Systems	0	0	1	0	3.00

Asana presently has a consensus target price of $20.67, suggesting a potential upside of 51.74%. Given Asana’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Asana is more favorable than KWESST Micro Systems.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Asana and KWESST Micro Systems’ revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Asana	$652.50 million	4.74	-$257.03 million	($1.17)	-11.75
KWESST Micro Systems	$970,000.00	4.33	-$6.90 million	($1.04)	-0.67

KWESST Micro Systems has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Asana. Asana is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than KWESST Micro Systems, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Asana beats KWESST Micro Systems on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Asana

Asana, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a work management platform for individuals, team leads, and executives in the United States and internationally. Its platform helps organizations to orchestrate work from daily tasks to cross-functional strategic initiatives; manage work across a portfolio of projects or workflows, see progress against goals, identify bottlenecks, resource constraints, and milestones; and communicate company-wide goals, monitor status, and oversee work across projects and portfolios to gain real-time insights. The company serves customers in various industries, such as technology, retail, education, non-profit, government, healthcare, hospitality, media, manufacturing, professional services, and financial services. The company was formerly known as Smiley Abstractions, Inc. and changed its name to Asana, Inc. in July 2009. Asana, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About KWESST Micro Systems

KWESST Micro Systems Inc. engages in the development and commercialization of tactical systems and ammunitions for military, public safety agencies, and personal defense markets. It provides non-lethal products, including PARA OPS devices and ARWEN products. The company was incorporated in 2017 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.