Bridgeline Digital (NASDAQ:BLIN – Get Free Report) and LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN – Get Free Report) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations and profitability.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Bridgeline Digital and LivePerson, as reported by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Bridgeline Digital | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.00 |
| LivePerson | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.80 |
Bridgeline Digital currently has a consensus price target of $4.62, suggesting a potential upside of 200.98%. LivePerson has a consensus price target of $0.88, suggesting a potential upside of 12.17%. Given Bridgeline Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Bridgeline Digital is more favorable than LivePerson.
Volatility & Risk
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Bridgeline Digital and LivePerson”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Bridgeline Digital | $15.39 million | 1.04 | -$1.96 million | ($0.19) | -8.08 |
| LivePerson | $312.47 million | 0.23 | -$100.43 million | ($2.32) | -0.34 |
Bridgeline Digital has higher earnings, but lower revenue than LivePerson. Bridgeline Digital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than LivePerson, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
15.1% of Bridgeline Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.8% of LivePerson shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.3% of Bridgeline Digital shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of LivePerson shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares Bridgeline Digital and LivePerson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Bridgeline Digital | -12.82% | -15.38% | -9.80% |
| LivePerson | -18.72% | -111.48% | -6.78% |
Summary
Bridgeline Digital beats LivePerson on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Bridgeline Digital
Bridgeline Digital, Inc. operates as a marketing technology company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company offers HawkSearch, a site search, recommendation, and personalization application for marketers, merchandisers, and developers; Celebros Search, a commerce-oriented site search product that provides natural language processing with artificial intelligence; and Woorank, a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) audit tool that generates an instant performance audit of the site's technical, on-page, and off-page SEO. It also provides Bridgeline TruPresence, a web content management and eCommerce platform to support the needs of multi-unit organizations and franchises; Bridgeline Unbound, a technology suite that empower marketers to easily manage their digital experiences and create personalized customer journeys; and OrchestraCMS, a digital experience platform that enables development of custom solutions, third-party integrations, and delivery of digital transformation initiatives on the Salesforce platform. In addition, the company offers digital engagement services comprising digital strategy, web design and web development, usability engineering, information architecture, and SEO, as well as hosting services. It serves vertical markets, such as industrial distributors and wholesalers, franchises and enterprises, manufacturers, eCommerce retailers, health services and life sciences, technology, credit unions and banks, and associations and foundations through its direct sales force. The company was formerly known as Bridgeline Software, Inc. Bridgeline Digital, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is based in Woburn, Massachusetts.
About LivePerson
LivePerson, Inc. engages in conversational artificial intelligence. It enables brands to leverage the Conversational Cloud's intelligence engine to connect with consumers through an integrated suite of mobile and online business messaging technologies. The company offers the Conversational Cloud, an enterprise-class digital customer conversation platform, which enables businesses and consumers to connect through conversational channels, such as voice, in-app, and mobile messaging. It also provides professional services; LivePerson's Conversational AI, including conversation builder, manager, and intelligence, and intent manager. In addition, it provides Voice AI, conversational intelligence and insights, and integration services. The company sells its products to Fortune 500 companies, Internet businesses, online merchants, automotive dealers, educational institution, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations. It operates in the United States, Canada, Latin America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Asia-Pacific. LivePerson, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, New York.
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