Head to Head Comparison: MariaDB (NYSE:MRDB) & Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY)

MariaDB (NYSE:MRDB) and Paylocity (NASDAQ:PCTY) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, profitability, earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares MariaDB and Paylocity’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
MariaDB	-72.29%	N/A	-146.29%
Paylocity	14.74%	22.17%	5.13%

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings for MariaDB and Paylocity, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
MariaDB	0	0	0	0	N/A
Paylocity	0	6	9	0	2.60

Paylocity has a consensus price target of $179.87, suggesting a potential upside of 5.66%. Given Paylocity’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Paylocity is more favorable than MariaDB.

Risk & Volatility

MariaDB has a beta of 0.64, suggesting that its stock price is 36% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Paylocity has a beta of 0.95, suggesting that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares MariaDB and Paylocity”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
MariaDB	$54.56 million	0.69	-$51.86 million	($0.59)	-0.93
Paylocity	$1.40 billion	6.85	$206.77 million	$3.44	49.49

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

30.7% of MariaDB shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 94.8% of Paylocity shares are held by institutional investors. 26.1% of MariaDB shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 22.5% of Paylocity shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Paylocity beats MariaDB on 12 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About MariaDB

MariaDB plc operates as a cloud database company in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It offers database solutions, including MariaDB Enterprise Server, a premium version of community server; MariaDB Xpand, a distributed structured query language (SQL) database for transactional workloads; MariaDB ColumnStore for data warehousing; MariaDB MaxScale for availability and load balancing; and MariaDB SkySQL, a database-as-a-service for its products on public clouds. The company also provides consulting, training, remote database administration, and engineering architecture services. It serves financial services, government, technology, retail, telecommunications, and transportation industries. The company is headquartered in Redwood City, California.

About Paylocity

Paylocity Holding Corporation provides cloud-based human capital management and payroll software solutions for workforce in the United States. The company offers Payroll and Tax Services solution to simplifies payroll, automates processes, and manages compliance requirements within one system; and expense management, on demand payment, and garnishment solutions. It provides human capital management and employee self-service solutions, document library, compliance dashboard, and HR edge; time and attendance solution; schedule tracking services; and time collection devices, including kiosks, time clocks, and mobile and web applications. In addition, the company offers talent management solutions comprising recruiting and onboarding, as well as learning, performance, and compensation management; and third-party administrative solutions; employee experiences solutions, including community, premium video, survey, and peer recognition; and insights and recommendations solutions, such as modern workforce index, data insights, and reporting. Further, it provides implementation and training, client, and tax and regulatory services. The company serves for-profit and non-profit organizations across industries, including business services, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, restaurants, retail, technology, and others. It sells its products through sales representatives. Paylocity Holding Corporation was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois.