Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and Cornerstone OnDemand (NASDAQ:CSOD) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, valuation and dividends.
Profitability
This table compares Salesforce.com and Cornerstone OnDemand’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Salesforce.com | -0.85% | 1.83% | 0.84% |
| Cornerstone OnDemand | -18.23% | -288.58% | -14.52% |
Volatility and Risk
Salesforce.com has a beta of 1.29, suggesting that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cornerstone OnDemand has a beta of 0.61, suggesting that its stock price is 39% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current ratings and target prices for Salesforce.com and Cornerstone OnDemand, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Salesforce.com | 1 | 4 | 42 | 0 | 2.87 |
| Cornerstone OnDemand | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2.46 |
Salesforce.com currently has a consensus target price of $101.96, indicating a potential upside of 8.35%. Cornerstone OnDemand has a consensus target price of $44.33, indicating a potential upside of 29.21%. Given Cornerstone OnDemand’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Cornerstone OnDemand is more favorable than Salesforce.com.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
86.3% of Salesforce.com shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.6% of Cornerstone OnDemand shares are owned by institutional investors. 6.7% of Salesforce.com shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 12.6% of Cornerstone OnDemand shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Salesforce.com and Cornerstone OnDemand’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | EBITDA | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Salesforce.com | $9.39 billion | 7.14 | $557.44 million | ($0.11) | -855.45 |
| Cornerstone OnDemand | $445.02 million | 4.44 | -$45.49 million | ($1.21) | -28.36 |
Salesforce.com has higher revenue and earnings than Cornerstone OnDemand. Salesforce.com is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cornerstone OnDemand, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Salesforce.com beats Cornerstone OnDemand on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Salesforce.com
Salesforce.com, inc. is a provider of enterprise software, delivered through the cloud, with a focus on customer relationship management (CRM). The Company focuses on cloud, mobile, social, Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence technologies. The Company’s service offerings are configured and integrated with other platforms and enterprise applications. The Company delivers its service offerings via Internet browsers and on mobile devices. Its Customer Success Platform is a portfolio of service offerings providing sales force automation, customer service and support, marketing automation, digital commerce, community management, analytics, application development, IoT integration, collaborative productivity tools and its professional cloud services. Its cloud service offerings include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Community Cloud, Analytics Cloud, Salesforce Quip and Salesforce Platform.
About Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc. is a cloud computing company. The Company provides learning and human capital management software, delivered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Its human capital management platform combines the talent management solutions with analytics and human resources (HR) administration solutions to enable organizations to manage the employee lifecycle. Its enterprise human capital management platform consists of four product suites: its Recruiting suite, which helps organizations to source and attract candidates, assess and select applicants, onboard new hires and manage the entire recruiting process; its Learning suite, which enables clients to manage training and development programs; its Performance suite, which provides tools to manage goal setting, performance reviews, compensation management and succession planning, and HR Administration suite, which supports employee records administration, workforce planning and compliance reporting.
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