Reviewing BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) and Dayforce (NYSE:DAY)

Dayforce (NYSE:DAY) and BlackLine (NASDAQ:BL) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

95.1% of BlackLine shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of Dayforce shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.9% of BlackLine shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Dayforce and BlackLine’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Dayforce	3.12%	6.69%	1.79%
BlackLine	19.83%	31.02%	4.92%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Dayforce and BlackLine, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Dayforce	0	6	8	0	2.57
BlackLine	2	6	4	0	2.17

Dayforce presently has a consensus target price of $79.08, suggesting a potential upside of 2.25%. BlackLine has a consensus target price of $66.00, suggesting a potential upside of 1.63%. Given Dayforce’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Dayforce is more favorable than BlackLine.

Volatility and Risk

Dayforce has a beta of 1.26, suggesting that its share price is 26% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, BlackLine has a beta of 0.9, suggesting that its share price is 10% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Dayforce and BlackLine”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Dayforce	$1.69 billion	7.20	$54.80 million	$0.33	234.36
BlackLine	$639.61 million	6.34	$58.17 million	$0.98	66.27

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

About Dayforce

Dayforce Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a human capital management (HCM) software company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It offers Dayforce, a cloud HCM platform that provides human resources, payroll and tax, workforce management, wallet, benefits, and talent intelligence functionalities; and Powerpay, a cloud HR and payroll solution for the small business market. The company also provides payroll and payroll-related services; and implementation and professional services. It sells its solutions through direct sales force and third-party channels. The company was formerly known as Ceridian HCM Holding Inc. and changed its name to Dayforce Inc. in February 2024. Dayforce Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

About BlackLine

BlackLine, Inc. provides cloud-based solutions to automate and streamline accounting and finance operations worldwide. It offers financial close management solutions, such as account reconciliations that provides a centralized workspace for users to collaborate on account reconciliations; transaction matching that analyzes and reconciles individual transactions; task management to create and manage processes and task lists; and financial reporting analytics that enables analysis and validation of financial data. The company's also provides journal entry that allows users to generate, review, and post manual journal entries; variance analysis that monitors and identifies anomalous fluctuations in balance sheet and income statement account balances; consolidation integrity manager that manages the automated system-to-system tie-out process; compliance, an integrated solution that facilitates compliance-related initiatives, consolidates project management, and provides visibility over control self-assessments and testing; and smart close for SAP solution. In addition, it offers blackline cash application, and credit and risk, collections, disputes and deductions, and team and task management, as well as AR intelligence solutions and electronic invoicing and compliance. Further, the company provides intercompany create functionality that stores permissions and business logic exceptions by entity, service, and transaction type; intercompany balance and resolve, which records an organization's intercompany transactions; and netting and settlement that enables open intercompany transactions, which integrate with treasury systems. The company sells its solutions primarily through direct sales force to multinational corporations, large domestic enterprises, and mid-market companies across various industries. BlackLine, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Woodland Hills, California.