Reviewing TriNet Group (NYSE:TNET) and Asure Software (NASDAQ:ASUR)

TriNet Group (NYSE:TNET) and Asure Software (NASDAQ:ASUR) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for TriNet Group and Asure Software, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
TriNet Group	1	5	1	0	2.00
Asure Software	1	1	2	1	2.60

TriNet Group currently has a consensus target price of $60.83, indicating a potential downside of 5.13%. Asure Software has a consensus target price of $13.00, indicating a potential upside of 38.15%. Given Asure Software’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Asure Software is more favorable than TriNet Group.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares TriNet Group and Asure Software”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
TriNet Group	$5.01 billion	0.59	$155.00 million	$3.69	17.38
Asure Software	$140.54 million	2.02	-$13.13 million	($0.12)	-78.42

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

96.8% of TriNet Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.6% of Asure Software shares are owned by institutional investors. 40.0% of TriNet Group shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 8.9% of Asure Software shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares TriNet Group and Asure Software’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
TriNet Group	3.56%	202.90%	5.74%
Asure Software	-2.30%	9.46%	3.72%

Risk & Volatility

TriNet Group has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Asure Software has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

TriNet Group beats Asure Software on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About TriNet Group

TriNet Group, Inc. provides comprehensive and flexible human capital management services for small and medium size businesses in the United States. The company offers multi-state payroll processing and tax administration; employee benefits programs, including health insurance and retirement plans; workers compensation insurance and claims management; employment and benefits law compliance; and other HR related services. It also provides technology platform, an online and mobile tool that allows users to store, view, and manager HR information and administer various HR transactions, such as payroll processing, tax administration and credits, employee onboarding and termination, employee performance, time and attendance, compensation reporting, expense management, and benefits enrollment and administration, as well as incorporated workforce analytics and allows professional employer organization clients to generate HR data, payroll, compensation, and other custom reports. The company serves clients in various industries, including technology, professional services, financial services, life sciences, and not-for-profit. It sells its solutions through its direct sales organization. TriNet Group, Inc. was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Dublin, California.

About Asure Software

Asure Software, Inc. engages in the provision of cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) software solutions in the United States. It provides its human resources (HR) tool as Software-as-a-Service that helps various small and medium-sized businesses to build productive workforce to help them stay compliant and allocate resources to grow their business. The company's solutions include Asure Payroll & Tax, an integrated solution that simplifies payroll and automates regulations associated with payroll and taxes, including wages, benefits, overtime, garnishments, tips, direct deposits, and fair labor standard act, as well as federal, state, and local payroll taxes; and Tax Management Solutions, that provides payroll tax processing software and service solutions, as well as bulk filing and processing support of employee retention tax credits, for the payroll service industry, mid-market, and corporate employers. It also provides HR compliance and services, including HR support, which provides an on-demand HR resource library, phone, and email support for various HR issues and compliance, and policy updates; Strategic HR, which provides in-depth support for strategic HR decision making; and Total HR, which provides a complete HR outsourcing solution, for handling HR complexities, such as employee self-service, applicant tracking, onboarding, and compliance. In addition, the company offers Time and Attendance, which provides cost savings and return on investment gains come in the form of strategic use of labor dollars and the elimination of time theft; and AsureMarketplace that automates interactions between its HCM systems with third-party providers. Asure Software, Inc. was incorporated in 1985 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.