Reviewing Rand Worldwide (OTCMKTS:RWWI) & Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT)

Confluent (NASDAQ:CFLT) and Rand Worldwide (OTCMKTS:RWWI) are both business services 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.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Confluent and Rand Worldwide’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Confluent	$776.95 million	12.08	-$442.75 million	($1.25)	-23.62
Rand Worldwide	$376.93 million	1.76	$46.05 million	N/A	N/A

Rand Worldwide has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Confluent.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

78.1% of Confluent shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 0.0% of Rand Worldwide shares are owned by institutional investors. 13.8% of Confluent shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 59.2% of Rand Worldwide 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.

Volatility and Risk

Confluent has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rand Worldwide has a beta of 0.14, indicating that its stock price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Confluent and Rand Worldwide’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Confluent	-46.73%	-40.55%	-13.56%
Rand Worldwide	11.38%	133.71%	28.70%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Confluent and Rand Worldwide, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Confluent	1	6	21	0	2.71
Rand Worldwide	0	0	0	0	N/A

Confluent presently has a consensus target price of $32.93, indicating a potential upside of 11.50%. Given Confluent’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Confluent is more favorable than Rand Worldwide.

Summary

Confluent beats Rand Worldwide on 6 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Confluent

Confluent, Inc. operates a data streaming platform in the United States and internationally. The company provides platforms that allow customers to connect their applications, systems, and data layers, such as Confluent Cloud, a managed cloud-native software-as-a-service; and Confluent Platform, an enterprise-grade self-managed software. It offers connectors for existing applications, and IT and cloud infrastructure; Apache Flink services that allows teams to create reusable data streams that can be delivered real-time; ksqlDB, a data-in-motion database that allows users to build data-in-motion applications using a few SQL statements; stream governance, a managed data governance suite that is designed for the intricacies of streaming data, which allows teams to accelerate data streaming initiatives without bypassing controls for risk management and regulatory compliance; and stream designer which builds streaming data pipelines visually. In addition, the company offers professional services comprising packaged and residency offerings; education offerings consisting of instructor-led and self-paced training and certification guidance, technical resources, and access to hands-on training and certification exams; and certification programs. It serves banking and financial services industries, as well as retail and e-commerce, manufacturing, automotive, communication service providers, gaming, public sector, insurance, and technology industries. The company was formerly known as Infinitem, Inc. and changed its name to Confluent, Inc. in September 2014. Confluent, Inc. was incorporated in 2014 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

About Rand Worldwide

Rand Worldwide, Inc. provides design automation and data management solutions primarily in the United States and Canada. It operates in five divisions: IMAGINiT Technologies, Rand Simulation, Facilities Management, ASCENT, and Rand 3D. The IMAGINiT Technologies division resells Autodesk solutions and system integration, and consulting services to customers in the manufacturing, infrastructure, building, and media and entertainment industries; resells Twinmotion visualization software, which provides design professionals to transform architectural models and designs into photorealistic images and immersive videos; offers a range of 3D laser scanning equipment and related software to help architectural, engineering, and construction firms; and sells its own proprietary software products and related services. The Rand Simulation division offers Ansys engineering simulation software to help organizations incorporate engineering simulation technology into the product development process; and provides simulation consulting services to enable organizations to achieve cost savings and design improvements through simulation technology. The Facilities Management division provides ARCHIBUS products for facilities management software for space planning, strategic planning, and lease/property administration; and offers various training, consulting, and support services for the ARCHIBUS products. The ASCENT division provides professional training materials and knowledge products for engineering software tools. The Rand 3D division offers training solutions for Dassault Systèmes and PTC products, including Pro/ENGINEER, CREO, and Windchill. Rand Worldwide, Inc. is based in Baltimore, Maryland.