Critical Review: Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) and Pathfinder Acquisition (NASDAQ:PFDR)

Pathfinder Acquisition (NASDAQ:PFDR) and Progress Software (NASDAQ:PRGS) are both unclassified companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, valuation and dividends.

Volatility and Risk

Pathfinder Acquisition has a beta of -0.02, suggesting that its share price is 102% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Progress Software has a beta of 0.92, suggesting that its share price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Pathfinder Acquisition and Progress Software, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pathfinder Acquisition	0	0	0	0	0.00
Progress Software	0	1	5	0	2.83

Progress Software has a consensus target price of $67.67, suggesting a potential upside of 1.94%. Given Progress Software’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Progress Software is more favorable than Pathfinder Acquisition.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Pathfinder Acquisition and Progress Software”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pathfinder Acquisition	N/A	N/A	$7.97 million	N/A	N/A
Progress Software	$715.42 million	3.98	$70.20 million	$1.87	35.50

Progress Software has higher revenue and earnings than Pathfinder Acquisition.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

77.8% of Pathfinder Acquisition shares are held by institutional investors. 20.0% of Pathfinder Acquisition shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 3.4% of Progress Software shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Pathfinder Acquisition and Progress Software’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pathfinder Acquisition	N/A	-102.69%	4.33%
Progress Software	11.55%	38.69%	10.64%

Summary

Progress Software beats Pathfinder Acquisition on 9 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Pathfinder Acquisition

Pathfinder Acquisition Corporation does not have significant operations. It intends to effect a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses in the technology or technology-enabled sectors. The company was incorporated in 2020 and is based in Palo Alto, California.

About Progress Software

Progress Software Corporation develops, deploys, and manages business applications in the United States and internationally. The company offers OpenEdge, an application development platform for running business-critical applications; Chef, a DevOps/DevSecOps automation software; Developer Tools that consists of software development tooling collection, including .NET and JavaScript UI components for web, desktop and mobile applications, reporting and report management tools, and automated testing and mocking tools; Kemp LoadMaster, an application delivery and security product offering cloud-native, and virtual and hardware load balancers; and Sitefinity, a digital experience platform foundation delivering intelligent and ROI-driving tools for marketers. It also provides MOVEit, a managed file transfer software for managing and controlling the movement of sensitive files and securing them both at-rest and in-transit; DataDirect, a secure data connectivity tools for Relational, NoSQL, Big Data and SaaS data sources; WhatsUp Gold, a network infrastructure monitoring software providing complete visibility of all network devices, servers, virtual machines, and cloud and wireless environments to find and fix network problems; Flowmon, a network security and visibility product with automated response across hybrid cloud ecosystems; Corticon, a decision automation platform to transform user experiences by streamlining and automating complex business rules; MarkLogic, a data agility platform to connect data and metadata; and Semaphore, a Semantic AI platform. The company offers project management, implementation, custom software development, programming, and other services, as well as web-enable applications; and training services. It sells its products to end users, independent software vendors, original equipment manufacturers, system integrators, value added resellers, and distributors. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts.