Critical Contrast: Shopify (NASDAQ:SHOP) & Apex Technology Acquisition (NASDAQ:APXT)

Shopify (NASDAQ:SHOP) and Apex Technology Acquisition (NASDAQ:APXT) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Shopify and Apex Technology Acquisition, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Shopify	0	10	31	2	2.81
Apex Technology Acquisition	1	0	0	0	1.00

Shopify currently has a consensus target price of $157.17, indicating a potential upside of 32.40%. Given Shopify’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Shopify is more favorable than Apex Technology Acquisition.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

69.3% of Shopify shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 6.0% of Apex Technology Acquisition shares are owned by institutional investors. 21.1% of Apex Technology Acquisition shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

Shopify has a beta of 2.64, indicating that its share price is 164% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apex Technology Acquisition has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Shopify and Apex Technology Acquisition”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Shopify	$11.56 billion	13.33	$1.23 billion	$1.01	117.53
Apex Technology Acquisition	N/A	N/A	-$60.72 million	N/A	N/A

Shopify has higher revenue and earnings than Apex Technology Acquisition.

Profitability

This table compares Shopify and Apex Technology Acquisition’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Shopify	10.77%	12.07%	10.37%
Apex Technology Acquisition	N/A	-750.42%	-10.63%

Summary

Shopify beats Apex Technology Acquisition on 11 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Shopify

Shopify Inc., a commerce company, provides a commerce platform and services in Canada, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Australia, China, and Latin America. The company’s platform enables merchants to displays, manages, markets, and sells its products through various sales channels, including web and mobile storefronts, physical retail locations, pop-up shops, social media storefronts, native mobile apps, buy buttons, and marketplaces; and enables to manage products and inventory, process orders and payments, fulfill and ship orders, new buyers and build customer relationships, source products, leverage analytics and reporting, manage cash, payments and transactions, and access financing. It also sells custom themes and apps, and registration of domain names; and merchant solutions, which include accepting payments, shipping, and securing working capital. The company was formerly known as Jaded Pixel Technologies Inc. and changed its name to Shopify Inc. in November 2011. Shopify Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada.

About Apex Technology Acquisition

Apex Technology Acquisition Corporation does not have significant operations. It intends to effect a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses in the software and internet technology industries. The company was incorporated in 2019 and is based in Burlingame, California. Apex Technology Acquisition Corporation is a subsidiary of Apex Technology Sponsor LLC.