C3.ai (NYSE:AI) & Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) Financial Survey

Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) and C3.ai (NYSE:AI) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Progress Software and C3.ai, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Progress Software	0	2	5	0	2.71
C3.ai	7	4	1	0	1.50

Progress Software presently has a consensus price target of $52.17, indicating a potential upside of 30.06%. C3.ai has a consensus price target of $8.70, indicating a potential downside of 17.10%. Given Progress Software’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Progress Software is more favorable than C3.ai.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

39.0% of C3.ai shares are held by institutional investors. 4.1% of Progress Software shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 19.8% of C3.ai shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Progress Software and C3.ai”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Progress Software	$977.83 million	1.68	$73.13 million	$2.06	19.47
C3.ai	$250.27 million	6.52	-$470.37 million	($3.08)	-3.41

Progress Software has higher revenue and earnings than C3.ai. C3.ai is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Progress Software, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Progress Software has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its share price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, C3.ai has a beta of 2.1, indicating that its share price is 110% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Progress Software and C3.ai’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Progress Software	8.87%	43.07%	8.78%
C3.ai	-192.10%	-61.25%	-49.03%

Summary

Progress Software beats C3.ai on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About C3.ai

C3.ai, Inc. operates as an enterprise artificial intelligence (AI) software company in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The company provides C3 AI platform, an application development and runtime environment that enables customers to design, develop, and deploy enterprise AI applications; C3 AI Ex Machina for analysis-ready data; C3 AI CRM, an industry specific customer relationship management solution; and C3 Generative AI Product Suite that enables to locate, retrieve, and present information. It also offers C3 AI applications, including C3 AI Inventory Optimization, a solution to optimize raw material, in-process, and finished goods inventory levels; C3 AI Supply Network Risk, which identifies emerging inbound and outbound risks across the network; C3 AI Sustainability Suite, which helps to decrease greenhouse gas emission; C3 AI Production Schedule Optimization, a solution for scheduling production; C3 AI Financial Services Suite, which helps to minimize compliance risks; and C3 AI Energy Management solution. In addition, it offers integrated turnkey enterprise AI applications for oil and gas, chemicals, utilities, manufacturing, financial services, defense, intelligence, aerospace, healthcare, and telecommunications market. It has strategic partnerships with Baker Hughes in the areas of oil and gas market; Booz Allen to provide solutions to government, defense, and intelligence sectors; Raytheon; and AWS, Google, and Microsoft. The company was formerly known as C3 IoT, Inc. and changed its name to C3.ai, Inc. in June 2019. C3.ai, Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.