Analyzing Onespan (NASDAQ:OSPN) & Cognyte Software (NASDAQ:CGNT)

Cognyte Software (NASDAQ:CGNT) and Onespan (NASDAQ:OSPN) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Volatility and Risk

Cognyte Software has a beta of 1.63, indicating that its stock price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Onespan has a beta of 1.32, indicating that its stock price is 32% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cognyte Software	$350.63 million	1.74	-$12.05 million	($0.06)	-139.17
Onespan	$241.44 million	1.81	$57.08 million	$1.47	7.76

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

72.9% of Cognyte Software shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 95.5% of Onespan shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.3% of Onespan shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Cognyte Software and Onespan, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cognyte Software	1	2	1	0	2.00
Onespan	0	2	2	0	2.50

Cognyte Software presently has a consensus target price of $14.00, indicating a potential upside of 67.66%. Onespan has a consensus target price of $17.00, indicating a potential upside of 49.12%. Given Cognyte Software’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Cognyte Software is more favorable than Onespan.

Profitability

This table compares Cognyte Software and Onespan’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cognyte Software	-1.20%	-2.05%	-0.91%
Onespan	24.90%	19.75%	13.19%

Summary

Onespan beats Cognyte Software on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Cognyte Software

Cognyte Software Ltd. provides an investigative analytics software to governments and enterprises worldwide. Its Actionable Intelligence for a Safer World, an open software designed to help governments and enterprises accelerate and enhance the effectiveness of investigations. The company offers network intelligence analytics, threat intelligence analytics, decision intelligence analytics, and operational intelligence analytics solutions. Its solutions are designed to support various use cases and support a range of users, including data analysts, investigation managers, and security operations center operators, as well as operational field teams. In addition, the company provides customer support, professional, and integration services. Its government customers include national, regional, and local government agencies. Cognyte Software Ltd. was incorporated in 2020 and is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel.

About Onespan

OneSpan Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets digital solutions for identity, authentication, and secure digital agreements worldwide. The company offers OneSpan Sign, a range of e-signature requirements for occasional agreement to processing tens of thousands of transactions; OneSpan Cloud Authentication, a cloud-based multifactor authentication solution that supports a range of authentication options, including biometrics, push notification, and visual cryptograms for transaction data security, SMS, and hardware authenticators; and OneSpan Identity Verification, which enables banks and financial institutions identity verification services. It also provides Mobile Security Suite, a software development kit that protect mobile transactions; Digipass Authenticators, consisting of a wide variety of authentication devices; authentication servers that provides a range of strong authentication utilities and solutions designed to allow organizations to securely authenticate users and transactions; and Digipass FX1 BIO, a physical passkey with fingerprint scan built for the workforce authentication market. In addition, it offers Virtual Room, a purpose-built, high-assurance solution that blends the simplicity of a consumer video collaboration app with high-assurance identity and authentication security; OneSpan Notary, an online notary solution developed for organizations with in-house notaries; and OneSpan Trust Vault, a blockchain-based decentralized digital storage solution that helps organizations meet compliance, regulatory, and chain of custody requirements for critical documents. It sells its solutions through its direct sales force, as well as through distributors, resellers, systems integrators, and original equipment manufacturers. The company was formerly known as VASCO Data Security International, Inc. and changed its name to OneSpan Inc. in May 2018. OneSpan Inc. was founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.