Critical Review: hopTo (OTCMKTS:HPTO) versus Shopify (NYSE:SHOP)

hopTo (OTCMKTS:HPTO) and Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for hopTo and Shopify, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
hopTo	0	0	0	0	0.00
Shopify	1	16	23	1	2.59

Shopify has a consensus price target of $94.95, suggesting a potential downside of 12.48%. Given Shopify’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Shopify is more favorable than hopTo.

Volatility and Risk

hopTo has a beta of 3.13, meaning that its stock price is 213% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shopify has a beta of 2.36, meaning that its stock price is 136% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

69.3% of Shopify shares are owned by institutional investors. 46.0% of hopTo shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares hopTo and Shopify”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
hopTo	$3.91 million	0.22	$120,000.00	N/A	N/A
Shopify	$8.21 billion	17.05	$132.00 million	$1.07	101.39

Shopify has higher revenue and earnings than hopTo.

Profitability

This table compares hopTo and Shopify’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
hopTo	N/A	N/A	N/A
Shopify	16.84%	11.60%	9.37%

Summary

Shopify beats hopTo on 11 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About hopTo

hopTo Inc., together with its subsidiaries, develops and sells application publishing software in the United States, Brazil, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, and internationally. The company's application publishing software includes application virtualization and cloud computing software for a range of computer operating systems, including Windows, UNIX, and various Linux-based variants. It provides its application publishing software solutions under the GO-Global brand name. The company offers GO-Global, an application access solution that provides cross-platform remote access and Web-enabled access to existing software applications, as well as the deployment of secure and private cloud environments for use and/or resale by independent software vendors, corporate enterprises, governmental and educational institutions, and others. Its GO-Global software products comprise GO-Global for Windows that allows access to Windows-based applications from remote locations and Internet connections; GO-Global for UNIX, which allows access to UNIX and Linux-based applications from remote locations, and Internet and connections; and GO-Global Client that allows remote application access from various local, remote, and mobile platforms, including Windows, Linux, UNIX, Apple OS X and iOS, and Google Android. The company sells its products through resellers, such as original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, value-added resellers, and distributors. It serves small to medium-sized companies, departments within large corporations, governmental and educational institutions, and independent software vendors. The company was formerly known as GraphOn Corporation and changed its name to hopTo Inc. in September 2013. hopTo Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Concord, New Hampshire.

About Shopify

Shopify Inc., a commerce company, provides a commerce platform and services in Canada, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, China, and Latin America. The company’s platform enables merchants to displays, manages, markets, and sells its products through various sales channels, including web and mobile storefronts, physical retail locations, pop-up shops, social media storefronts, native mobile apps, buy buttons, and marketplaces; and enables to manage products and inventory, process orders and payments, fulfill and ship orders, new buyers and build customer relationships, source products, leverage analytics and reporting, manage cash, payments and transactions, and access financing. It also sells custom themes and apps, and registration of domain names; and merchant solutions, which include accepting payments, shipping, and securing working capital. The company was formerly known as Jaded Pixel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to Shopify Inc. in November 2011. Shopify Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.