By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR – Get Free Report) and Bentley Systems (NASDAQ:BSY – Get Free Report) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations and valuation.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of current recommendations for Palantir Technologies and Bentley Systems, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Palantir Technologies | 6 | 12 | 3 | 0 | 1.86 |
| Bentley Systems | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2.71 |
Palantir Technologies currently has a consensus target price of $69.44, indicating a potential downside of 35.45%. Bentley Systems has a consensus target price of $57.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.23%. Given Bentley Systems’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Bentley Systems is more favorable than Palantir Technologies.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Palantir Technologies and Bentley Systems”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Palantir Technologies | $2.23 billion | 110.14 | $209.82 million | $0.20 | 537.91 |
| Bentley Systems | $1.23 billion | 11.04 | $326.71 million | $1.11 | 42.01 |
Bentley Systems has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Palantir Technologies. Bentley Systems is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Palantir Technologies, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Volatility & Risk
Palantir Technologies has a beta of 2.81, suggesting that its share price is 181% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bentley Systems has a beta of 1.03, suggesting that its share price is 3% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Palantir Technologies and Bentley Systems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Palantir Technologies | 18.01% | 9.94% | 7.91% |
| Bentley Systems | 27.73% | 29.50% | 8.49% |
Insider and Institutional Ownership
45.7% of Palantir Technologies shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 44.2% of Bentley Systems shares are held by institutional investors. 12.9% of Palantir Technologies shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 21.1% of Bentley Systems shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Bentley Systems beats Palantir Technologies on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Palantir Technologies
Palantir Technologies, Inc. engages in the business of building and deploying software platforms that serve as the central operating systems for its customers. It operates under the Commercial and Government segments. The Commercial segment focuses on customers working in non-government industries. The Government segment is involved in providing services to customers that are the United States government and non-United States government agencies. The company was founded by Alexander Ceadmon Karp, Peter Andreas Thiel, Stephen Cohen, and Nathan Dale Gettings in 2003 and is headquartered in Denver, CO.
About Bentley Systems
Bentley Systems, Incorporated, together with its subsidiaries, provides infrastructure engineering software solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. The company offers open modeling engineering applications, such as MicroStation, OpenBridge, OpenBuildings, OpenCities, OpenComms, OpenFlows, OpenPlant, OpenRail, OpenRoads, OpenSite, OpenTower, OpenTunnel, OpenUtilities, and OpenWindowPower; and open simulation engineering applications, including ADINA, AutoPIPE, CUBE, DYNAMEQ, EMME, LEGION, Power Line Systems, RAM, SACS, SPIDA, and STAAD; and geoprofessional applications for modeling and simulation of near and deep subsurface conditions, including AGS, Central, GeoStudio, Imago, Leapfrog, MX Deposit, Oasis montaj, OpenGround, and PLAXIS. It also provides infrastructure cloud applications, such as ProjectWise, SYNCHRO, and AssetWise, as well as iTwin platform that enables users to create and curate cloud native 4D/5D digital representations of physical infrastructure assets consisting of iTwin Capture, iTwin Experience, and iTwin IoT platforms. The company serves civil, structural, geotechnical, subsurface, process engineers, architects, geospatial professionals, city and regional planners, contractors, fabricators, and operations and maintenance engineers. Bentley Systems, Incorporated was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania.
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