Analyzing Asana (NYSE:ASAN) & Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL)

Skillsoft (NYSE:SKIL) and Asana (NYSE:ASAN) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, earnings, risk, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Volatility & Risk

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

Institutional and Insider Ownership

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

Earnings and Valuation

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

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

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.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Skillsoft and Asana, as reported by MarketBeat.

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

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

Profitability

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

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

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.

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.