Critical Review: Absolute Software (ALSWF) and Its Rivals

Dividends

Absolute Software pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 857.1%. Absolute Software pays out 100.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Software” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.1% and pay out 47.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

1.2% of Absolute Software shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 42.5% of shares of all “Software” companies are owned by institutional investors. 19.8% of shares of all “Software” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Absolute Software has a beta of 1.05, indicating that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Absolute Software’s competitors have a beta of 1.19, indicating that their average share price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Absolute Software and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Absolute Software	10.16%	-23.28%	9.44%
Absolute Software Competitors	-632.75%	40.32%	-8.52%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Absolute Software and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Absolute Software	$104.67 million	$10.64 million	0.12
Absolute Software Competitors	$1.79 billion	$385.97 million	72.12

Absolute Software’s competitors have higher revenue and earnings than Absolute Software. Absolute Software is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Absolute Software competitors beat Absolute Software on 8 of the 11 factors compared.

Absolute Software Company Profile

Absolute Software Corp. engages in the provision of cloud-based service that supports the management and security of computing devices, applications, and data for a variety of organizations. Its solutions includes education, financial services, general date protection regulations (GDPR) compliance, government, healthcare, professional services, and technology solutions such as Absolute for Android, and Absolute for Chromebook. The company was founded on November 24, 1993 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.