Contrasting PAR Technology (NYSE:PAR) & Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE)

Braze (NASDAQ:BRZE) and PAR Technology (NYSE:PAR) are both technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and dividends.

Risk and Volatility

Braze has a beta of 0.88, indicating that its stock price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PAR Technology has a beta of 1.33, indicating that its stock price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Braze and PAR Technology’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Braze	-15.51%	-17.52%	-9.88%
PAR Technology	-14.52%	-1.62%	-0.97%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations for Braze and PAR Technology, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Braze	1	0	18	1	2.95
PAR Technology	1	2	5	0	2.50

Braze currently has a consensus target price of $36.59, indicating a potential upside of 10.94%. PAR Technology has a consensus target price of $24.61, indicating a potential upside of 30.94%. Given PAR Technology’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe PAR Technology is more favorable than Braze.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Braze and PAR Technology”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Braze	$738.18 million	5.03	-$131.29 million	($1.12)	-29.45
PAR Technology	$455.55 million	1.71	-$84.46 million	($1.76)	-10.68

PAR Technology has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Braze. Braze is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than PAR Technology, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.5% of Braze shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.5% of Braze shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.3% of PAR Technology 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.

Summary

Braze beats PAR Technology on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Braze

Braze, Inc. operates a customer engagement platform that provides interactions between consumers and brands worldwide. The company offers Braze software development kits that automatically manage data ingestion and deliver mobile and web notifications, in-application/in-browser interstitial messages, and content cards; REST API that can be used to import or export data or to trigger workflows between Braze and brands' existing technology stacks; Partner Data Integrations, which allow brands to sync user cohorts from partners; Data Transformation, in which brands can programmatically sync and transform user data; and Braze Cloud Data Ingestion that enables brands to harness their customer data. It also offers classification products, including segmentation that can define reusable segments of consumers based upon attributes, events, or predictive propensity scores; segment insights, which allows customers to analyze how segments are performing relative to each other across a set of pre-selected key performance indicators; and predictive suite that allows customers to identify groups of consumers that are of critical business value. In addition, the company provides Canvas, an orchestration tool that allows customers to create journeys, mapping out multi-steps, and cross-channel messaging experiences; campaigns, which allows customers to send one set of single-channel or multi-channel messages to be delivered to customers in a particular user segment; event and API triggering; marketing pressure management; and reporting and analytics. Further, it offers personalization products, such as liquid templating platform, connected content platform, content blocks, intelligent timing and channel, personalized variant, and AI item recommendations, and catalogs; and action products. The company was formerly known as Appboy, Inc. and changed its name to Braze, Inc. in November 2017. Braze, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in New York, New York.

About PAR Technology

PAR Technology Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides omnichannel cloud-based hardware and software solutions to the restaurant and retail industries worldwide. The Restaurant/Retail segment offers PUNCHH, an enterprise-grade customer loyalty and engagement solution; MENU, an eCommerce platform for restaurant brands; BRINK POS, an open cloud, point-of-sale solution; PAR PAYMENT SERVICES, a merchant services business that enables electronic payment and processing services for businesses; and DATA CENTRAL, a back-office solution that leverages business intelligence and automation technologies. This segment also offers Point-of-Sale Hardware; wireless headsets for drive-thru order-taking; and kitchen display systems, payment devices, cash drawers, printers, and other peripherals. In addition, this segment provides services, such as hardware repair, installation and implementation, training, and on-site and technical support services. The Government segment provides intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance solutions; mission systems operations and maintenance, and commercial software products; systems engineering support and software-based solutions; satellite and teleport facility operation and maintenance, engineering, and installation services comprising inside and outside plant services, and maintenance of infrastructure and information systems; satellite ground system support comprising operations and maintenance, sustainment, upgrades, communications security management, anomaly response/resolution, process improvement, emergency response, and disaster recovery services; and information technology infrastructure library services to the United States Department of Defense, intelligence community (IC), and other federal agencies. This segment also offers various IC support services, systems integration, situational awareness solutions, and mission readiness support services. The company was founded in 1968 and is based in New Hartford, New York.