Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) and ANSYS (NASDAQ:ANSS) are both large-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitabiliy, valuation, risk, dividends and analyst recommendations.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of current recommendations for Symantec Corporation and ANSYS, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Symantec Corporation | 1 | 12 | 13 | 0 | 2.46 |
| ANSYS | 2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1.91 |
Symantec Corporation presently has a consensus price target of $30.86, indicating a potential upside of 7.91%. ANSYS has a consensus price target of $105.75, indicating a potential downside of 15.24%. Given Symantec Corporation’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Symantec Corporation is more favorable than ANSYS.
Dividends
Symantec Corporation pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. ANSYS does not pay a dividend. Symantec Corporation pays out -49.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
Profitability
This table compares Symantec Corporation and ANSYS’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Symantec Corporation | -8.68% | 10.73% | 2.33% |
| ANSYS | 26.37% | 13.87% | 11.06% |
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Symantec Corporation and ANSYS’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Symantec Corporation | $4.31 billion | 4.04 | $696.00 million | ($0.61) | -46.88 |
| ANSYS | $1.03 billion | 10.32 | $449.22 million | $3.11 | 40.12 |
Symantec Corporation has higher revenue and earnings than ANSYS. Symantec Corporation is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ANSYS, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
93.8% of Symantec Corporation shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.2% of ANSYS shares are held by institutional investors. 0.8% of Symantec Corporation shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of ANSYS shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Volatility and Risk
Symantec Corporation has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ANSYS has a beta of 1.1, suggesting that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Summary
Symantec Corporation beats ANSYS on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Symantec Corporation
Symantec Corporation is a United States-based cyber security company. The Company offers products under categories, such as threat protection, information protection, cyber security services and Website security. Under threat protection, it offers Advanced Threat Protection, Endpoint Protection, Endpoint Protection Cloud, IT Management Suite, Email Security.Cloud, Data Center Security and Cloud Workload Protection products. Under the information protection category, it offers Data Loss Prevention, Encryption, Managed PKI, Service, VIP Access Manager, and Data Loss Prevention and CloudSOC products. The Company also offers consulting services, customer success services, cyber security services and education services. Its cyber security services include DeepSight Intelligence software, which provides an analysis of attacks. The Company offers the Blue Coat Security Platform, which provides Web security solutions for global enterprises and governments.
About ANSYS
ANSYS, Inc. (ANSYS) develops and markets engineering simulation software and services used by engineers, designers, researchers and students across a range of industries and academia, including aerospace and defense, automotive, industrial equipment, electronics, biomedical, energy, materials and chemical processing, and semiconductors. The Company focuses on the development of open and flexible solutions that enable users to analyze designs directly on the desktop, providing a common platform for product development, from design concept to final-stage testing and validation. The Company distributes its ANSYS suite of simulation technologies through a network of independent resellers and distributors, and direct sales offices in various locations. Its product portfolio consists of Simulation Platform: ANSYS Workbench, Structures, Fluids, Electronics, Semiconductors, Multiphysics, AIM, Embedded Software, Systems, Three Dimensional (3-D) Direct Modeling and Academic.
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