Critical Review: AvePoint (NASDAQ:AVPT) & Q2 (NYSE:QTWO)

Q2 (NYSE:QTWO) and AvePoint (NASDAQ:AVPT) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares Q2 and AvePoint’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Q2	-5.53%	0.85%	0.33%
AvePoint	-2.36%	-3.16%	-1.55%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Q2 and AvePoint, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Q2	0	8	8	0	2.50
AvePoint	0	2	4	0	2.67

Q2 currently has a consensus price target of $100.60, suggesting a potential upside of 24.92%. AvePoint has a consensus price target of $16.40, suggesting a potential downside of 3.98%. Given Q2’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Q2 is more favorable than AvePoint.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

44.5% of AvePoint shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.0% of Q2 shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 26.2% of AvePoint shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Q2 and AvePoint”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Q2	$696.46 million	7.20	-$38.54 million	($0.65)	-123.89
AvePoint	$330.48 million	10.43	-$21.50 million	($0.16)	-106.75

AvePoint has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Q2. Q2 is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than AvePoint, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk and Volatility

Q2 has a beta of 1.47, suggesting that its stock price is 47% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, AvePoint has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

About Q2

Q2 Holdings, Inc. provides cloud-based digital solutions to regional and community financial institutions in the United States. The company offers Digital Banking Platform, an end-to-end digital banking platform supports its financial institution customers in their delivery of unified digital banking services across digital channels. Its digital banking platform solutions, comprising Q2 Consumer Banking, Q2 Small Business and Commercial, Q2mobile Remote Deposit Capture, Q2 Sentinel, Q2 Patrol, Q2 SMART, Q2 Contextual Personal Financial Management, Q2 Goals, Q2 CardSwap, Q2 Gro, Q2 Innovation Studio, Q2 Biller Direct, ClickSWITCH, Sensibill, Centrix Dispute Tracking System, Centrix Payments I.Q. System, and Centrix Exact/Transaction Management System. The company also provides lending solutions, which consists precisionlender solutions, a cloud-based platform, data-driven sales enablement, relationship pricing, and portfolio management solution includes precisionlender platform, premium treasury pricing, data studio, and Andi; and Q2 Cloud Lending solutions, a cloud-based digital lending platform and end-to-end lending solution that allows financial institutions, FinTechs, and Alt-FIs to automate and digitize their lending activities, supporting digital lending applications, scoring, underwriting, servicing, and collections for multiple assets classes comprising Q2 CL portal, originate, loan, marketplace, and collections. In addition, it offers Q2 Innovation Studio, an application program interface, or API, based and software development kit, or SDK, based open technology platform; and Helix, a cloud-native, real-time core processing platform. The company was formerly known as CBG Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to Q2 Holdings, Inc. in March 2013. Q2 Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About AvePoint

AvePoint, Inc. provides cloud-native data management software platform in North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific. It also offers software-as-a-service solutions and productivity applications. The company offers modularity and cloud services architecture to address critical challenges and the management of data to organizations that leverage third-party cloud vendors, including Microsoft, Salesforce, Google, AWS, Box, DropBox, and others; license and support; and maintenance services. AvePoint, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.