Critical Survey: BILL (NYSE:BILL) and Alarum Technologies (NASDAQ:ALAR)

Alarum Technologies (NASDAQ:ALAR) and BILL (NYSE:BILL) are both business services companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Volatility and Risk

Alarum Technologies has a beta of 0.67, suggesting that its share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BILL has a beta of 1.61, suggesting that its share price is 61% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

3.2% of Alarum Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.0% of BILL shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.7% of Alarum Technologies shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 3.8% of BILL shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Alarum Technologies and BILL, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Alarum Technologies	0	0	3	0	3.00
BILL	1	9	11	0	2.48

Alarum Technologies currently has a consensus price target of $30.00, suggesting a potential upside of 158.84%. BILL has a consensus price target of $70.24, suggesting a potential upside of 28.28%. Given Alarum Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Alarum Technologies is more favorable than BILL.

Profitability

This table compares Alarum Technologies and BILL’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Alarum Technologies	12.70%	54.68%	35.55%
BILL	-2.24%	1.13%	0.49%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Alarum Technologies and BILL”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Alarum Technologies	$26.52 million	3.00	-$5.53 million	($1.47)	-7.88
BILL	$1.29 billion	4.50	-$28.88 million	($0.79)	-69.30

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

Summary

BILL beats Alarum Technologies on 7 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Alarum Technologies

Alarum Technologies Ltd. provides internet access and web data collection solutions in North, South, and Central America, Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The company operates through two segments, Enterprise Internet Access Solutions and Consumer Internet Access Solutions. The company offers security blanket against ransomware, viruses, phishing, and other online threats, as well as secured and encrypted connection, masking the customers online activity and keeping them safe from hackers. It also provides privacy solutions and services, a software solution that uses an encryption protocol which is defined upon the process being used to generate a secured encrypted path and keep the users' data private and safe; and web data collection solution allows organizations to collect vast amounts of web and internet data by simultaneously connecting to the Internet from different IP addresses. In addition, the company offers static residential proxy network, rotating residential proxy network, data center proxy network, premium dedicated static residential proxies, mobile proxies, SERP data collection service, and social data collection service, as well as advertising services to enterprise customers. The company offers its products through resellers and internet service providers. It serves advertising and media companies, financial organizations, cyber security companies, industrial and commercial companies, online companies, education institutions, and AI recruitment market and other sectors. The company was formerly known as Safe-T Group Ltd. and changed its name to Alarum Technologies Ltd. in January 2023. Alarum Technologies Ltd. was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

About BILL

BILL Holdings, Inc. provides financial automation software for small and midsize businesses worldwide. The company provides software-as-a-service, cloud-based payments, and spend management products, which allow users to automate accounts payable and accounts receivable transactions, as well as enable users to connect with their suppliers and/or customers to do business, eliminate expense reports, manage cash flows, and improve office efficiency. It also offers onboarding implementation support, and ongoing support and training services. In addition, the company's artificial intelligence enabled software provides connections between suppliers and clients. It serves accounting firms, financial institutions, and software companies. The company was formerly known as Bill.com Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to BILL Holdings, Inc. in February 2023. BILL Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.