Contrasting Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) & SAP (NYSE:SAP)

Qualys (NASDAQ:QLYS) and SAP (NYSE:SAP) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, earnings and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Qualys and SAP’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Qualys	29.36%	46.72%	21.09%
SAP	7.74%	10.98%	6.75%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Qualys and SAP, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Qualys	3	10	2	1	2.06
SAP	0	1	8	0	2.89

Qualys currently has a consensus price target of $149.92, indicating a potential upside of 19.05%. SAP has a consensus price target of $225.17, indicating a potential upside of 7.98%. Given Qualys’ higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Qualys is more favorable than SAP.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

99.3% of Qualys shares are held by institutional investors. 1.0% of Qualys shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.4% of SAP shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Qualys and SAP’s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Qualys	$554.46 million	8.39	$151.60 million	$4.32	29.15
SAP	$33.77 billion	N/A	$6.64 billion	$4.61	45.23

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

Risk & Volatility

Qualys has a beta of 0.49, indicating that its share price is 51% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SAP has a beta of 1.25, indicating that its share price is 25% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

SAP beats Qualys on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Qualys

Qualys, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based platform delivering information technology (IT), security, and compliance solutions in the United States and internationally. It offers Qualys Cloud Apps, which include Cybersecurity Asset Management and External Attack Surface Management; Vulnerability Management, Detection and Response; Web Application Scanning; Patch Management; Custom Assessment and Remediation; Multi-Vector Endpoint Detection and Response; Context Extended Detection and Response; Policy Compliance; File Integrity Monitoring; and Qualys TotalCloud, as well as Cloud Workload Protection, Cloud Detection and Response, Cloud Security Posture Management, Infrastructure as Code, and Container Security. The company's integrated suite of IT, security, and compliance solutions delivered on its Qualys' Enterprise TruRisk Platform enables customers to identify and manage IT assets; collect and analyze IT security data; discover and prioritize vulnerabilities; quantify cyber risk exposure; recommend and implement remediation actions; and verify the implementation of such actions. It also provides asset tagging and management, reporting and dashboards, questionnaires and collaboration, remediation and workflow, big data correlation and analytics engine, and alerts and notifications that enable clients to detect vulnerabilities, and measure and remediate cyber risk. The company offers its solutions to enterprises, government entities, and small and medium-sized businesses in various industries, including education, financial services, government, healthcare, insurance, manufacturing, media, retail, technology, and utilities through its sales teams, as well as through its network of channel partners, such as security consulting organizations, managed service providers, resellers, cloud providers, and consulting firms. Qualys, Inc. was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Foster City, California.

About SAP

SAP SE, together with its subsidiaries, provides applications, technology, and services worldwide. It offers SAP S/4HANA that provides software capabilities for finance, risk and project management, procurement, manufacturing, supply chain and asset management, and research and development; SAP SuccessFactors solutions for human resources, including HR and payroll, talent and employee experience management, and people and workforce analytics; and spend management solutions that covers direct and indirect spend, travel and expense, and external workforce management. The company also provides SAP customer experience solutions; SAP Business Technology platform that enables customers and partners to build, integrate, and automate applications; and SAP Business Network, a business-to-business collaboration platform that helps digitalize key business processes across the supply chain and enables communication between trading partners. In addition, it offers SAP Signavio to help customers to discover, analyze, and understand their business process operations; SAP's industry cloud solutions that provides modular solutions addressing industry-specific functions; Taulia solutions for working capital management to help enable customers mitigate the effects of inflation by providing visibility into working capital and access to liquidity; and sustainability solutions and services. SAP SE was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in Walldorf, Germany.