Head-To-Head Survey: Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) versus Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM)

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) and Shift4 Payments (NYSE:FOUR) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and analyst recommendations.

Volatility and Risk

Akamai Technologies has a beta of 0.65, suggesting that its share price is 35% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Shift4 Payments has a beta of 1.7, suggesting that its share price is 70% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Akamai Technologies and Shift4 Payments”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Akamai Technologies	$3.97 billion	3.61	$547.63 million	$3.38	28.18
Shift4 Payments	$3.15 billion	3.06	$86.20 million	$1.84	58.12

Akamai Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than Shift4 Payments. Akamai Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Shift4 Payments, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

94.3% of Akamai Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.9% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by institutional investors. 1.8% of Akamai Technologies shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 30.6% of Shift4 Payments shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Akamai Technologies and Shift4 Payments, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Akamai Technologies	1	5	14	2	2.77
Shift4 Payments	0	6	15	0	2.71

Akamai Technologies presently has a consensus target price of $116.85, suggesting a potential upside of 22.66%. Shift4 Payments has a consensus target price of $106.40, suggesting a potential downside of 0.50%. Given Akamai Technologies’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts plainly believe Akamai Technologies is more favorable than Shift4 Payments.

Profitability

This table compares Akamai Technologies and Shift4 Payments’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Akamai Technologies	13.27%	14.63%	6.85%
Shift4 Payments	4.04%	23.86%	5.87%

Summary

Akamai Technologies beats Shift4 Payments on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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.

About Shift4 Payments

Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE FOUR) provides integrated payment processing and technology solutions in the United States. Its payments platform provides omni-channel card acceptance and processing solutions, including end-to-end payment processing for various payment types; merchant acquiring; proprietary omni-channel gateway; complementary software integrations; integrated and mobile point-of-sale (POS) solutions; security and risk management solutions; and reporting and analytical tools, as well as tokenization, risk management/underwriting, payment device and chargeback management, fraud prevention, and gift card solutions. The company also offers suite of technology solutions, such as Lighthouse, a cloud-based business intelligence tool that includes customer engagement, social media management, online reputation management, scheduling, and product pricing, as well as reporting and analytics; integrated POS for merchants business; and Skytab, a mobile payment solution. In addition, it provides marketplace technology that enable seamless integrations into third-party applications, which includes online delivery services, payroll, timekeeping, and other human resource services. Further, the company offers merchant management, training and education, marketing management, and incentives tracking solutions. Additionally, it provides merchant underwriting, onboarding and activation, training, risk management, and support services; and software integrations and compliance management, and partner support and services. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania.