Financial Contrast: Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) and BOX (NYSE:BOX)

Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) and BOX (NYSE:BOX) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for Synopsys and BOX, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Synopsys	0	0	11	0	3.00
BOX	1	2	8	0	2.64

Synopsys currently has a consensus price target of $649.82, indicating a potential upside of 24.79%. BOX has a consensus price target of $31.22, indicating a potential downside of 6.88%. Given Synopsys’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Synopsys is more favorable than BOX.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

85.5% of Synopsys shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.7% of BOX shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Synopsys shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of BOX shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Synopsys and BOX”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Synopsys	$5.84 billion	13.69	$1.23 billion	$9.64	54.02
BOX	$1.04 billion	4.63	$129.03 million	$0.79	42.44

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

Profitability

This table compares Synopsys and BOX’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Synopsys	24.06%	22.09%	14.05%
BOX	13.94%	-14.41%	5.70%

Volatility and Risk

Synopsys has a beta of 1.08, meaning that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BOX has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Synopsys beats BOX on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Synopsys

Synopsys, Inc. provides electronic design automation software products used to design and test integrated circuits. It operates in three segments: Design Automation, Design IP, and Software Integrity. The company offers Digital and Custom IC Design solution that provides digital design implementation solutions; Verification solution that offers virtual prototyping, static and formal verification, simulation, emulation, field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based prototyping, and debug solutions; and FPGA design products that are programmed to perform specific functions. It also provides intellectual property (IP) solutions for USB, PCI Express, DDR, Ethernet, MIPI, HDMI, and Bluetooth low energy applications; logic libraries and embedded memories; processor cores, software, and application-specific instruction-set processor tools for embedded applications; security IP solutions; IP solutions for automotive market; and system-on-chip (SoC) infrastructure IP, datapath and building block IP, and verification IP products, as well as mathematical and floating-point components, and Arm AMBA interconnect fabric and peripherals. In addition, the company offers HAPS FPGA-based prototyping systems; virtual prototyping solutions; and Platform Architect solutions for SoC architecture analysis and optimization, as well as optical products, and mechatronic simulations. Further, it provides security and quality testing products, managed services, programs and professional services, and training that enable its customers to detect and remediate security vulnerabilities, and defects in the software development lifecycle, as well as manufacturing solutions. Additionally, the company provides intelligent orchestration solution, software risk manager, and black duck software composition analysis tools. It serves electronics, financial services, automotive, medicine, energy, and industrial areas. The company was incorporated in 1986 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

About BOX

Box, Inc. provides a cloud content management platform that enables organizations of various sizes to manage and share their content from anywhere on any device. The company's Software-as-a-Service platform enables users to work with their content as they need from secure external collaboration and sharing, workspaces and portals, e-signature processes, and content workflows improving employee productivity and accelerating business processes. It also offers web, mobile, and desktop applications for cloud content management on a platform for developing custom applications. The company had approximately 100,000 paying organizations, and its solution was offered in 25 languages. It serves financial services, health care, government, and legal services industries in the United States and internationally. The company was formerly known as Box.net, Inc. and changed its name to Box, Inc. in November 2011. Box, Inc. was incorporated in 2005 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.