Reviewing Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) and WM Technology (NASDAQ:MAPS)

Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) and WM Technology (NASDAQ:MAPS) are both construction companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Altair Engineering and WM Technology, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Altair Engineering	1	3	2	0	2.17
WM Technology	0	0	1	0	3.00

Altair Engineering presently has a consensus target price of $90.67, indicating a potential upside of 6.87%. WM Technology has a consensus target price of $2.61, indicating a potential upside of 192.40%. Given WM Technology’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe WM Technology is more favorable than Altair Engineering.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

63.4% of Altair Engineering shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 22.0% of WM Technology shares are held by institutional investors. 21.8% of Altair Engineering shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 23.2% of WM Technology shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Altair Engineering and WM Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Altair Engineering	4.26%	6.89%	3.75%
WM Technology	-3.65%	-13.38%	-8.54%

Risk and Volatility

Altair Engineering has a beta of 1.48, meaning that its stock price is 48% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, WM Technology has a beta of 0.77, meaning that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Altair Engineering and WM Technology’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Altair Engineering	$627.21 million	11.23	-$8.93 million	$0.09	942.67
WM Technology	$187.99 million	0.72	-$9.90 million	N/A	N/A

Altair Engineering has higher revenue and earnings than WM Technology.

Summary

Altair Engineering beats WM Technology on 9 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Altair Engineering

Altair Engineering Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides software and cloud solutions in the areas of simulation and design, high-performance computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence in the United States and internationally. It operates in two segments, Software and Client Engineering Services. The Software segment offers solvers and optimization technology products, high-performance computing software applications and hardware products, modeling and visualization tools, data analytics and analysis products, and Internet of Things platform and analytics tools, as well as support and the complementary software products. This segment also provides software technologies in the areas of computational fluid dynamics and fatigue, manufacturing process simulation, and cost estimation for the applications in automotive, marine, motorcycle, aerospace, chemical, and architecture industries; and software-related services, such as consulting, implementation, and training services that focuses on the product design and development expertise and analysis from the component level up to complete product engineering at various stage of the lifecycle. The Client Engineering Services segment provides client engineering services. In addition, the company is involved in the development and sale of solid state lighting technology along with communication and control protocols based on its intellectual property for the direct replacement of fluorescent tubes with LED lighting. Its integrated suite of software optimizes design performance across various disciplines, including structures, motion, fluids, thermal management, electromagnetics, system modeling, and embedded systems. The company serves universities, government agencies, manufacturers, pharmaceutical firms, banking, financial services, and insurance, weather prediction agencies, and electronics design companies. Altair Engineering Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Troy, Michigan.

About WM Technology

WM Technology, Inc. provides ecommerce and compliance software solutions to retailers and brands in cannabis market in the United States and internationally. The company offers Weedmaps marketplace that allows cannabis users to search for and browse cannabis products from retailers and brands, and reserve products from local retailers; and education and learning information to help newer consumers learn about the types of products to purchase. It also provides monthly subscription-based business software solutions, including WM Listings, WM Orders, WM Store, WM Connectors, and WM Insights as well as other add-on products, such as WM Ads, WM AdSuite, WM Customer Relationship Management, WM Dispatch, and WM Screens. WM Technology, Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Irvine, California.