SailPoint (NASDAQ:SAIL) versus Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN) Critical Survey

Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN) and SailPoint (NASDAQ:SAIL) are both large-cap technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

81.4% of Gen Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.7% of Gen Digital shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of SailPoint shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility and Risk

Gen Digital has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SailPoint has a beta of 2.17, suggesting that its share price is 117% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Gen Digital and SailPoint’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Gen Digital	20.73%	55.93%	8.91%
SailPoint	-16.92%	2.44%	2.21%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Gen Digital and SailPoint, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Gen Digital	0	6	1	1	2.38
SailPoint	1	5	19	0	2.72

Gen Digital presently has a consensus target price of $30.80, suggesting a potential upside of 42.46%. SailPoint has a consensus target price of $21.55, suggesting a potential upside of 4.42%. Given Gen Digital’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Gen Digital is more favorable than SailPoint.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Gen Digital and SailPoint”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Gen Digital	$5.00 billion	2.59	$973.00 million	$1.72	12.57
SailPoint	$1.07 billion	11.00	-$270.05 million	($0.34)	-60.71

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

Summary

Gen Digital beats SailPoint on 11 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gen Digital

Gen Digital Inc. engages in the provision of cyber safety solutions for consumers in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company offers security and performance products under Norton, Avast, Avira, AVG, and CCleaner brands that provide real-time protection and maintenance for PCs, Macs, and mobile devices against malware, viruses, adware, and other online threats. It also provides identity protection solutions, including LifeLock Identity Theft Protection, Avast and AVG Secure Identity, Norton Identity Theft Protection, and Dark Web Monitoring for monitoring of credit reports, financial accounts, the dark web, and social media accounts to help safeguard customers’ personal information. In addition, the company offers Virtual Private Network (VPN) solutions under Norton, Avast and AVG brands to enhance security and online privacy that allows customers to securely transmit and access private information, such as passwords, bank details, and credit card numbers, when using public Wi-Fi on PCs, Macs, and mobile iOS and Android devices; AntiTrack and Secure Browser products which helps to keep personal information and browsing activity anonymous while browsing online; and Privacy Monitor Assistant and BreachGuard products for removing customers’ data from public data broker sites; and ReputationDefender, a white glove service that helps customers manage all aspects of their personal branding online, including search results, social media sites, and overall web presence. It markets and sells its products and related services through retailers, telecom service providers, hardware original equipment manufacturers, and employee benefit providers, as well as e-commerce platform. The company was formerly known as NortonLifeLock Inc. and changed its name to Gen Digital Inc. in November 2022. Gen Digital Inc. was founded in 1982 and is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.

About SailPoint

SailPoint, Inc. delivers solutions to enable comprehensive identity security for the enterprise. Its solutions enable organizations to establish, control, and automate policies that help them define and maintain a robust security posture and achieve regulatory compliance. The company was founded by Mark David McClain in 2005 and is headquartered in Austin, TX.