Coursera (NYSE:COUR) and FalconStor Software (OTCMKTS:FALC) Head to Head Survey

FalconStor Software (OTCMKTS:FALC) and Coursera (NYSE:COUR) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation and profitability.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

9.5% of FalconStor Software shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 89.6% of Coursera shares are owned by institutional investors. 52.8% of FalconStor Software shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.3% of Coursera shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for FalconStor Software and Coursera, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
FalconStor Software	0	0	0	0	0.00
Coursera	1	3	9	0	2.62

Coursera has a consensus price target of $10.52, indicating a potential upside of 21.70%. Given Coursera’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Coursera is more favorable than FalconStor Software.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares FalconStor Software and Coursera”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
FalconStor Software	$11.60 million	1.09	$980,000.00	($0.04)	-44.38
Coursera	$635.76 million	2.15	-$116.55 million	($0.51)	-16.95

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

Profitability

This table compares FalconStor Software and Coursera’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
FalconStor Software	13.98%	-8.94%	14.06%
Coursera	-11.44%	-10.43%	-6.86%

Risk & Volatility

FalconStor Software has a beta of 2.07, meaning that its stock price is 107% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Coursera has a beta of 1.44, meaning that its stock price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

About FalconStor Software

FalconStor Software, Inc., a storage software company, enables enterprise customers and managed service providers to secure, migrate, and protect their data worldwide. It offers FalconStor Virtual Tape Library, a software that emulates and replaces cumbersome physical tape libraries for archive related data preservation without being replacing their enterprise backup and archive software and associated processes; FalconStor StorSafe, a long-term archive data management software; FalconStor Continuous Data Protector delivers instant data availability, and reliable recovery; and FalconStor Network Storage Server for data storage virtualization and business continuity in heterogeneous environments. The company also provides FalconStor StorSigh, a long-term archive and business continuity driven data replication from one centralized management point; FalconStor RecoverTrac Disaster Recovery Technology that streamlines the implementation, testing, and execution of disaster recovery operations; and FalconStor MicroScanTM Technology, which minimizes the amount of data transferred during replication by eliminating inefficiencies at the application and file system layer. It sells its products through authorized partners, value-added resellers, solution providers, system integrators, direct market resellers, distributors, managed service providers, cloud service providers, and original equipment manufacturers, as well as directly to customers. The company was incorporated in 1994 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Coursera

Coursera, Inc. operates an online educational content platform in the United States, Europe, Africa, the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and internationally. It operates in three segments: Consumer, Enterprise, and Degrees. The company offers guided projects, courses, and specializations, as well as online degrees; and certificates for entry-level professional, non-entry level professional, university, and MasterTrack. It offers its products to individuals, enterprise, business, campus, and government. The company was formerly known as Dkandu, Inc. and changed its name to Coursera, Inc. in April 2012. Coursera, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California.