Head-To-Head Review: Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) & LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN)

Twilio (NYSE:TWLO) and LivePerson (NASDAQ:LPSN) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and institutional ownership.

Profitability

This table compares Twilio and LivePerson’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Twilio	-2.45%	1.38%	1.14%
LivePerson	-18.72%	-111.48%	-6.78%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations and price targets for Twilio and LivePerson, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Twilio	1	7	15	1	2.67
LivePerson	1	2	0	0	1.67

Twilio presently has a consensus target price of $124.41, indicating a potential upside of 7.08%. LivePerson has a consensus target price of $1.00, indicating a potential upside of 23.72%. Given LivePerson’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe LivePerson is more favorable than Twilio.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

84.3% of Twilio shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.8% of LivePerson shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Twilio shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.0% of LivePerson shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Twilio	$4.58 billion	3.87	-$109.40 million	($0.21)	-553.28
LivePerson	$292.03 million	0.26	-$100.43 million	($2.16)	-0.37

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

Risk & Volatility

Twilio has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, LivePerson has a beta of 1.75, suggesting that its share price is 75% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Twilio beats LivePerson on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Twilio

Twilio Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides customer engagement platform solutions in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments, Twilio Communications and Twilio Segment. The company provides various application programming interfaces and software solutions for communications between customers and end users, including messaging, voice, email, flex, marketing campaigns, and user identity and authentication. It also offers software products to build direct, personalized relationships with their end users, such as segment, a platform that provides tools for first-party data by unifying real-time information collected; and engage, an automation platform for the delivery of omnichannel campaigns. Twilio Inc. was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About LivePerson

LivePerson, Inc. engages in conversational artificial intelligence. It enables brands to leverage the Conversational Cloud's intelligence engine to connect with consumers through an integrated suite of mobile and online business messaging technologies. The company offers the Conversational Cloud, an enterprise-class digital customer conversation platform, which enables businesses and consumers to connect through conversational channels, such as voice, in-app, and mobile messaging. It also provides professional services; LivePerson's Conversational AI, including conversation builder, manager, and intelligence, and intent manager. In addition, it provides Voice AI, conversational intelligence and insights, and integration services. The company sells its products to Fortune 500 companies, Internet businesses, online merchants, automotive dealers, educational institution, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations. It operates in the United States, Canada, Latin America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United Kingdom, and the Asia-Pacific. LivePerson, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in New York, New York.