Taoping (NASDAQ:TAOP) and Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) Head to Head Survey

Taoping (NASDAQ:TAOP) and Altair Engineering (NASDAQ:ALTR) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, dividends, profitability and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

4.0% of Taoping shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 63.4% of Altair Engineering shares are held by institutional investors. 45.4% of Taoping shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 21.8% of Altair Engineering shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Taoping and Altair Engineering, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Taoping	0	0	0	0	0.00
Altair Engineering	1	7	0	0	1.88

Altair Engineering has a consensus target price of $100.83, suggesting a potential downside of 9.42%. Given Altair Engineering’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Altair Engineering is more favorable than Taoping.

Risk & Volatility

Taoping has a beta of 0.43, suggesting that its share price is 57% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Altair Engineering has a beta of 1.45, suggesting that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Taoping and Altair Engineering”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Taoping	$42.64 million	0.11	-$700,000.00	N/A	N/A
Altair Engineering	$665.79 million	14.34	$14.18 million	$0.17	654.82

Altair Engineering has higher revenue and earnings than Taoping.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Taoping	N/A	N/A	N/A
Altair Engineering	2.13%	8.08%	4.74%

Summary

Altair Engineering beats Taoping on 10 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Taoping

Taoping Inc. provides cloud-based platform, resource sharing, and big data solutions to the Chinese new media, education residential community management, and elevator Internet of Things (IoT) industries in the People's Republic of China. It operates through Cloud-Based Technology and Traditional Information Technology segments. The company offers cloud-based software as a service to automate the interactive workflows between advertising agencies and their customers, including establishing new advertising projects, submitting advertisement proposals, revising and approving advertising proposals, processing payment online, remotely uploading advertisement content, and tracking and analyzing performance data. It also provides project-based technology products and services for the public sector; and software and hardware with integrated solutions, such as information technology infrastructure, internet-enabled display technologies, and IoT platforms to customers in government, education, residential community management, media, transportation, and other private sectors, as well as related maintenance and support services. In addition, the company offers cloud-application-terminal, IoT technology based digital advertising distribution network, and media resource sharing platform in the out-of-home advertising markets. Further, it operates Taoping Net, an advertising-resources trading service platform, which connect screen owners, advertisers, and consumers; and Taoping App that enable customers to distribute and manage ads from mobile terminals. The company was formerly known as China Information Technology, Inc. and changed its name to Taoping Inc. in June 2018. Taoping Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, the People's Republic of China.

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.