HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) and Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) Head-To-Head Contrast

HealthStream (NASDAQ:HSTM) and Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, risk and earnings.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares HealthStream and Akamai Technologies”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HealthStream	$304.06 million	2.29	$18.34 million	$0.67	35.54
Akamai Technologies	$4.21 billion	5.09	$452.03 million	$2.97	49.57

Akamai Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than HealthStream. HealthStream is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Akamai Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for HealthStream and Akamai Technologies, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HealthStream	1	2	0	0	1.67
Akamai Technologies	3	7	12	0	2.41

HealthStream presently has a consensus target price of $24.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.80%. Akamai Technologies has a consensus target price of $145.29, suggesting a potential downside of 1.32%. Given HealthStream’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe HealthStream is more favorable than Akamai Technologies.

Risk & Volatility

HealthStream has a beta of 0.41, indicating that its stock price is 59% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Akamai Technologies has a beta of 0.45, indicating that its stock price is 55% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

69.6% of HealthStream shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.3% of Akamai Technologies shares are owned by institutional investors. 20.4% of HealthStream shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of Akamai Technologies shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares HealthStream and Akamai Technologies’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HealthStream	6.39%	6.47%	4.44%
Akamai Technologies	10.20%	12.96%	5.56%

Summary

Akamai Technologies beats HealthStream on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HealthStream

HealthStream, Inc. provides Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based applications for healthcare organizations in the United States. The company’s solutions help healthcare organizations in meeting their ongoing clinical development, talent management, training, education, assessment, competency management, safety and compliance, and scheduling, as well as provider credentialing, privileging, and enrollment needs. It offers hStream, a technology platform that powers a range of healthcare workforce solutions. The company provides its solutions to customers across a range of entities within the healthcare industry, including private, not-for-profit, and government entities, as well as pharmaceutical and medical device companies through its direct sales teams. The company was incorporated in 1990 and is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee.

About Akamai Technologies

Akamai Technologies, Inc. provides cloud computing, security, and content delivery services in the United States and internationally. The company offers cloud solutions to keep infrastructure, websites, applications, application programming interfaces, and users safe from various cyberattacks and online threats while enhancing performance. It also provides web and mobile performance solutions to enable dynamic websites and applications; media delivery solutions, including video streaming and video player services, game and software delivery, broadcast operations, authoritative domain name system, resolution, and data and analytics; and cloud computing services, such as compute, storage, networking, database, and container management services to build, deploy, and secure applications and workloads. In addition, the company offers content delivery solutions; and an array of service and support to assist customers with integrating, configuring, optimizing, and managing its offerings. It sells its solutions through various channel partners. Akamai Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts.