Head to Head Comparison: Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) vs. Bentley Systems (NASDAQ:BSY)

Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ:PLTR) and Bentley Systems (NASDAQ:BSY) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, earnings, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, risk and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Palantir Technologies and Bentley Systems, as reported by MarketBeat.

	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 presently has a consensus price target of $69.44, indicating a potential downside of 35.45%. Bentley Systems has a consensus price target of $57.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.23%. Given Bentley Systems’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Bentley Systems is more favorable than Palantir Technologies.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Palantir Technologies and Bentley Systems”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) 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, meaning that its stock price is 181% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Bentley Systems has a beta of 1.03, meaning that its stock 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%

Institutional and Insider 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 company 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.