Contrasting Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) and Asana (NYSE:ASAN)

Asana (NYSE:ASAN) and Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, dividends, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Asana and Skillsoft, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Asana	2	9	4	0	2.13
Skillsoft	0	1	2	0	2.67

Asana presently has a consensus target price of $15.67, suggesting a potential upside of 3.99%. Skillsoft has a consensus target price of $35.00, suggesting a potential upside of 61.03%. Given Skillsoft’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Skillsoft is more favorable than Asana.

Risk & Volatility

Asana has a beta of 1.13, meaning that its share price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Skillsoft has a beta of 1.28, meaning that its share price is 28% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

26.2% of Asana shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.0% of Skillsoft shares are held by institutional investors. 64.0% of Asana shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 13.5% of Skillsoft shares are held 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.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Asana and Skillsoft”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Asana	$723.88 million	4.76	-$257.03 million	($1.11)	-13.57
Skillsoft	$534.78 million	0.34	-$349.29 million	($41.50)	-0.52

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

Profitability

This table compares Asana and Skillsoft’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Asana	-36.17%	-86.84%	-27.20%
Skillsoft	-62.85%	-53.74%	-7.53%

About Asana

Asana, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a work management platform for individuals, team leads, and executives in the United States and internationally. Its platform helps organizations to orchestrate work from daily tasks to cross-functional strategic initiatives; manage work across a portfolio of projects or workflows, see progress against goals, identify bottlenecks, resource constraints, and milestones; and communicate company-wide goals, monitor status, and oversee work across projects and portfolios to gain real-time insights. The company serves customers in various industries, such as technology, retail, education, non-profit, government, healthcare, hospitality, media, manufacturing, professional services, and financial services. The company was formerly known as Smiley Abstractions, Inc. and changed its name to Asana, Inc. in July 2009. Asana, Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Skillsoft

Skillsoft Corp. provides content and platform and instructor-led training services in the United States and internationally. The company's Content & Platform segment engages in the sale, marketing, and delivery of its content learning solutions in areas, such as leadership and business, technology and developer, and compliance comprising individualized coaching, as well as technical skill areas. This segment also offers Percipio, an AI-driven online learning platform that delivers a learning experience through SaaS solutions. Its Instructor-Led Training segment provides training solutions, including information technology and business skills for corporations and their employees by guiding its customers throughout their lifelong technology learning journey by offering relevant and up-to-date skills training through instructor-led and self-paced, vendor certified, and other proprietary offerings. The company markets and sells their offerings to businesses of many sizes, government agencies, educational institutions, and resellers. Skillsoft Corp. is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado.