Coursera (NYSE:COUR) & Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) Critical Review

Coursera (NYSE:COUR) and Appian (NASDAQ:APPN) are both business services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Coursera has a beta of 1.48, indicating that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Appian has a beta of 1.46, indicating that its stock price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Coursera and Appian’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coursera	$635.76 million	2.96	-$116.55 million	($0.77)	-15.55
Appian	$545.36 million	4.92	-$111.44 million	($1.53)	-23.87

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

Profitability

This table compares Coursera and Appian’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coursera	-18.33%	-18.15%	-12.39%
Appian	-20.43%	-127.40%	-16.30%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Coursera and Appian, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coursera	1	2	8	0	2.64
Appian	1	2	5	0	2.50

Coursera currently has a consensus price target of $22.10, indicating a potential upside of 84.55%. Appian has a consensus price target of $48.86, indicating a potential upside of 33.78%. Given Coursera’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Coursera is more favorable than Appian.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

89.6% of Coursera shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.7% of Appian shares are owned by institutional investors. 15.9% of Coursera shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 43.6% of Appian shares are owned by 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.

Summary

Coursera beats Appian on 11 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Coursera

Coursera, Inc. operates an online educational content platform in the United States, Europe, Africa, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Consumer, Enterprise, and Degrees. The company offers guided projects, courses, and specializations, as well as online degrees; and certificates for entry-level professional, non-entry level professional, university, and MasterTrack. It offers its products to individuals, enterprise, business, campus, and government. The company was formerly known as Dkandu, Inc. and changed its name to Coursera, Inc. in April 2012. Coursera, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.

About Appian

Appian Corporation, a software company that provides low-code design platform in the United States, Mexico, Portugal, and internationally. The company's platform offers artificial intelligence, process automation, data fabric, and process mining. It provides The Appian Platform, an integrated automation platform that enables organizations to design, automate, and optimize mission-critical business processes. The company also offers professional and customer support services. It serves to financial services, government, life sciences, insurance, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, telecommunications, and transportation industries. Appian Corporation was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.