Critical Survey: PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) & Rekor Systems (NASDAQ:REKR)

Rekor Systems (NASDAQ:REKR) and PagerDuty (NYSE:PD) are both small-cap technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, profitability, earnings, risk, valuation, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Rekor Systems and PagerDuty”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Rekor Systems	$49.82 million	0.90	-$31.46 million	($0.16)	-2.04
PagerDuty	$492.55 million	2.50	$173.85 million	$2.00	7.83

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

Risk & Volatility

Rekor Systems has a beta of 1.83, indicating that its share price is 83% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, PagerDuty has a beta of 0.96, indicating that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

45.7% of Rekor Systems shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.3% of PagerDuty shares are held by institutional investors. 3.2% of Rekor Systems shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.0% of PagerDuty shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Rekor Systems and PagerDuty’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Rekor Systems	-43.84%	-59.05%	-27.37%
PagerDuty	37.50%	18.52%	4.84%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Rekor Systems and PagerDuty, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Rekor Systems	1	0	0	0	1.00
PagerDuty	2	5	3	0	2.10

PagerDuty has a consensus target price of $12.81, indicating a potential downside of 18.17%. Given PagerDuty’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe PagerDuty is more favorable than Rekor Systems.

Summary

PagerDuty beats Rekor Systems on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Rekor Systems

Rekor Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: REKR) is a technology company that develops artificial intelligence and machine-learning solutions for roadway intelligence, public safety, and transportation management. Its software analyzes data from cameras and other sources to help government agencies, law enforcement organizations, transportation departments, and commercial customers understand and manage vehicle movement. The company’s Rekor One platform is designed to combine roadway data from multiple sources and provide tools for vehicle identification, traffic analytics, incident detection, and operational decision-making.

About PagerDuty

PagerDuty, Inc. provides cloud-based software for managing digital operations. Its PagerDuty Operations Cloud platform helps organizations detect and respond to technology incidents, coordinate response teams, automate operational workflows and reduce disruptions to digital services. The company’s products support incident management, AIOps, automation and customer service operations. They are used by IT, engineering, security and support teams to monitor systems, prioritize alerts and coordinate work across people and technology.