Based on key financial metrics such as the price-to-sales ratio, shareholder yield and the price-earnings ratio, the following 6 stocks made the list for top value stocks in the Software industry. Those looking for value stocks to add to their portfolio may want to use this list as a starting point for further investment research.
Why Focus on Undervalued Software Stocks?
Value investors seek to buy stocks at a discount to their intrinsic value. Long-term returns show that such strategies are advantageous. Value stocks, as a group, tend to outperform growth stocks over extended periods of time. Typically, value investors perform financial analysis of numerous metrics, don’t follow the herd and are long-term investors.
AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade is derived from a stock’s Value Score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.
What Goes Into AAII’s Value Grade?
Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data as well as the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movement. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors with that task.
AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A–F grades for more than just value. It is possible for a stock to appear cheap based on one valuation metric but appear expensive on another. It is also possible for one valuation ratio to be associated with outperforming stocks during certain periods of time but not others. Some stocks may even have null values for certain metrics like the price-earnings ratio or the price-to-book ratio but not others. An example of this would be a company with losses instead of profits or a negative book value because of heavy borrowing. Negative earnings or book value result in non-meaningful ratios that are left blank or null.
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6 Undervalued Software Stocks
Of course, there are countless value stocks that are worth mentioning, but this is a concise list of the top 6 undervalued stocks in the Software industry for Tuesday, October 22, 2024. Let’s take a closer look at their individual scores to see how they measure up against each other and the Software industry median.
| Company | Ticker | Price/Sales | Price/Earnings | EV/EBITDA | Shareholder Yield | Price/Book Value | Price/Free Cash Flow | Value Grade |
| Bridgeline Digital, Inc. | BLIN | 0.76 | na | na | 0.0% | 1.00 | na | B |
| Cheetah Mobile Inc. | CMCM | 0.19 | na | 9.1 | (2.7%) | 0.05 | na | A |
| Aurora Mobile Limited | JG | 0.13 | na | na | 0.6% | 0.35 | na | A |
| Karooooo Ltd. | KARO | 0.27 | 25.7 | 9.9 | (3.4%) | 0.44 | na | B |
| OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. | OCFT | 0.81 | na | 5.4 | 4.9% | 0.85 | na | A |
| Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. | SNCR | 0.65 | na | 10.2 | (3.7%) | 1.14 | 14.4 | B |
The Value Grade is assigned based on how each stock’s composite valuation compares to all other stocks.
The process for assigning grades starts with each variable for a given stock. The percentile rankings for all valid ratios that a stock has are calculated. So, for instance, a stock could have a price-to-book ranking in the 43rd percentile, a price-earnings ranking in the 67th percentile, a price-to-sales ranking in the 23rd percentile, etc. Then, those rankings are averaged for each stock. (A minimum of two valid variables are required, though all six will be used if available.)
Once the average of the individual variables is calculated, that average is ranked against all stocks. Put another way, each stock’s composite valuation is compared to all other stocks. These ranks are then sorted into quintiles from the cheapest 20% (a grade of A) to the most expensive 20% (a grade of F).
As always, we recommend that you conduct proper due diligence and research before investing in any security. We also suggest that investors utilize numerous grades, not just value, when it comes to deciding whether a company is a good fit for their allocation needs.
Bridgeline Digital, Inc.’s Value Grade
Value Grade:
| Metric | Score | BLIN | Industry Median |
| Price/Sales | 26 | 0.76 | 3.90 |
| Price/Earnings | na | na | 41.9 |
| EV/EBITDA | na | na | 22.4 |
| Shareholder Yield | 49 | 0.0% | (2.6%) |
| Price/Book Value | 32 | 1.00 | 3.66 |
| Price/Free Cash Flow | na | na | 32.7 |
Bridgeline Digital, Inc. operates as a marketing technology company in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company offers HawkSearch, a site search, recommendation, and personalization application for marketers, merchandisers, and developers; Celebros Search, a commerce-oriented site search product that provides natural language processing with artificial intelligence; and Woorank, a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) audit tool that generates an instant performance audit of the site’s technical, on-page, and off-page SEO. It also provides Bridgeline TruPresence, a web content management and eCommerce platform to support the needs of multi-unit organizations and franchises; Bridgeline Unbound, a technology suite that empower marketers to easily manage their digital experiences and create personalized customer journeys; and OrchestraCMS, a digital experience platform that enables development of custom solutions, third-party integrations, and delivery of digital transformation initiatives on the Salesforce platform. In addition, the company offers digital engagement services comprising digital strategy, web design and web development, usability engineering, information architecture, and SEO, as well as hosting services. It serves vertical markets, such as industrial distributors and wholesalers, franchises and enterprises, manufacturers, eCommerce retailers, health services and life sciences, technology, credit unions and banks, and associations and foundations through its direct sales force. The company was formerly known as Bridgeline Software, Inc. Bridgeline Digital, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is based in Woburn, Massachusetts.
Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.
Bridgeline Digital, Inc. has a Value Score of 73, which is considered to be undervalued.
When you look at Bridgeline Digital, Inc.’s price-to-sales ratio at 0.76 compared to the industry median at 3.90, this company has a lower price relative to revenue compared to its peers. This could make Bridgeline Digital, Inc.’s stock more attractive for value investors.
Shareholder yield is the sum of a stock’s dividend yield (paid over previous 12 months minus special dividends) and the percentage of net share buybacks over the previous 12 months. Bridgeline Digital, Inc.’s shareholder yield is higher than its industry median ratio of (2.60%). Value investors may look for an attractive shareholder yield because it can be a powerful tool for identifying if the company has a good management team.
As one of the most common value metrics, the price-to-book ratio evaluates a company’s current market price relative to its book value. Bridgeline Digital, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 3.66. This could make Bridgeline Digital, Inc. more attractive to investors looking for a new addition to their portfolio.
Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s Value Grade
Value Grade:
| Metric | Score | CMCM | Industry Median |
| Price/Sales | 8 | 0.19 | 3.90 |
| Price/Earnings | na | na | 41.9 |
| EV/EBITDA | 34 | 9.1 | 22.4 |
| Shareholder Yield | 69 | (2.7%) | (2.6%) |
| Price/Book Value | 2 | 0.05 | 3.66 |
| Price/Free Cash Flow | na | na | 32.7 |
Cheetah Mobile Inc. along with its subsidiaries, engages in provision of internet services, artificial intelligence, and other services in the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, Japan, and internationally. The company’s internet products include Duba Anti-virus, an internet security application to protect users against known and unknown security threats and malicious applications; and Clean Master, a junk file cleaning, memory boosting, and privacy protection tool for mobile devices. It also offers value-added products, such as PC and mobile products, as well as wallpaper, office optimization software, and others; E-Coupon vending robot, a delivery and reception robot, which includes marketing campaigns and services; and multi-cloud management platform and overseas advertising agency service. In addition, the company provides mobile advertising services; duba.com personal start page that aggregates online resources and provides users access to their online destinations, such as online shopping, video, online game, travel, and local information; artificial intelligence and other services; and premium membership services. It serves mobile advertising networks and partners, e-commerce companies, mobile application developers, and mobile game developers, as well as individual customers. The company was formerly known as Kingsoft Internet Software Holdings Limited and changed its name to Cheetah Mobile Inc. in March 2014. Cheetah Mobile Inc. was incorporated in 2009 and is based in Beijing, the People’s Republic of China.
Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.
Cheetah Mobile Inc. has a Value Score of 86, which is considered to be undervalued.
Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Cheetah Mobile Inc. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.66.
You can read more about Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.
Aurora Mobile Limited’s Value Grade
Value Grade:
| Metric | Score | JG | Industry Median |
| Price/Sales | 6 | 0.13 | 3.90 |
| Price/Earnings | na | na | 41.9 |
| EV/EBITDA | na | na | 22.4 |
| Shareholder Yield | 40 | 0.6% | (2.6%) |
| Price/Book Value | 9 | 0.35 | 3.66 |
| Price/Free Cash Flow | na | na | 32.7 |
Aurora Mobile Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of developer services in China. The company provides push notification, instant messaging, analytics, sharing and short message service, one-click verification, and other services. The company offers real-time market intelligence solutions, such as product iApp, which provides analysis and statistical results on the usage and trends of mobile apps to investment funds and corporations. It also provides financial risk management solutions to assist financial institutions, licensed lenders, and credit card companies in making informed lending and credit decisions; and location-based intelligence services. In addition, the company offers application programming interfaces that create connectivity and automate the process of message exchange between the mobile apps and its backend network; an interactive web-based service dashboard that allows app developers to utilize and monitor its services through controls on an ongoing basis; and value added services, such as Advertisement SAAS, a data management platform service, which provides tagged and de-identified population data package; JG Alliance, an integrated marketing campaign services to advertising customers; and AD Mediation Platform to help mobile app developers access other mainstream advertising platforms. It primarily serves mobile app developers in a range of industries, such as media, entertainment, gaming, financial services, tourism, ecommerce, education, and healthcare. Aurora Mobile Limited was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, the People’s Republic of China.
Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.
Aurora Mobile Limited has a Value Score of 96, which is considered to be undervalued.
Aurora Mobile Limited’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Aurora Mobile Limited less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.66.
You can read more about Aurora Mobile Limited’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.
Karooooo Ltd.’s Value Grade
Value Grade:
| Metric | Score | KARO | Industry Median |
| Price/Sales | 11 | 0.27 | 3.90 |
| Price/Earnings | 63 | 25.7 | 41.9 |
| EV/EBITDA | 38 | 9.9 | 22.4 |
| Shareholder Yield | 71 | (3.4%) | (2.6%) |
| Price/Book Value | 12 | 0.44 | 3.66 |
| Price/Free Cash Flow | na | na | 32.7 |
Karooooo Ltd. provides mobility software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for connected vehicles in South Africa, rest of Africa, Europe, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and the United States. It operates through Cartrack, Carzuka, and Karooooo Logistics segments. The company offers Fleet Telematics, a fleet management SaaS platform that provides real-time insights; LiveVision for pro-active risk management and fleet visibility; MiFleet advanced fleet administration and business intelligence for cost management and administration capabilities; and Karooooo Logistics, a software application for management of last mile delivery and general operational logistics. It also provides Cartrack Field Service, a software application for management of field and on site workers; Business Intelligence for high-level view of fleet statistics; asset tracking for tracking and tracing moveable assets; asset recovery services that assists vehicle owners and insurance companies with the recovery of vehicles and other assets; and insurance telematics that allows insurers to tailor premiums for commercial and consumer customers using analytics; Protector, a safety package for consumer vehicles; and Car Watch, a mobile application that lets users track and watch their vehicles. In addition, the company offers Bike Track, a GPS-based solution for commercial motorbike fleets; Credit Management that predicts payment cycles and facilitate active credit management for asset-based vehicle finance; electronic monitoring services application that allows law enforcement agencies to monitor persons of interest; and mobility and monitoring solutions, such as Carzuka and cartrack insurance agency, as well as smart IoT products. It provides its solutions through direct sales force to consumers and sole proprietors, small and medium-sized businesses, large enterprises, and other connected devices. Karooooo Ltd. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Singapore.
Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.
Karooooo Ltd. has a Value Score of 66, which is considered to be undervalued.
Karooooo Ltd.’s price-earnings ratio is 25.7 compared to the industry median at 41.9. This means that it has a lower price relative to its earnings compared to its peers. This makes Karooooo Ltd. more attractive for value investors.
Karooooo Ltd.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Karooooo Ltd. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.66.
You can read more about Karooooo Ltd.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.
OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd.’s Value Grade
Value Grade:
| Metric | Score | OCFT | Industry Median |
| Price/Sales | 28 | 0.81 | 3.90 |
| Price/Earnings | na | na | 41.9 |
| EV/EBITDA | 14 | 5.4 | 22.4 |
| Shareholder Yield | 15 | 4.9% | (2.6%) |
| Price/Book Value | 25 | 0.85 | 3.66 |
| Price/Free Cash Flow | na | na | 32.7 |
OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. provides cloud-platform-based Fintech solutions, and online information and operating support services for financial institutions in the People's Republic of China. It operates in Technology Solutions and Virtual Bank Business segments. The company offers Gamma Platform, which offers a toolbox of separate solution modules that provide technology infrastructure and underlying technologies; marketing management platform, developed from AI Banker App, provides banks relationship managers with technology that supports in managing their acquisition and relationships with retail customers; and wealth management platform that provides banks with tools to enhance the efficiency of their wealth management business. It also provides intelligent product development platform for banks, which allows to shorten product development cycle, enhance speed to market, and facilitate product portfolio management; Regtech, an end-to-end regulatory solution for financial regulatory authorities; asset-liability management solution provides analytics to enhance financial institutions asset liquidity performance; and digital insurance solutions for digitalizing the insurance process, marketing, customer management, and claim processing under intelligent property and casualty insurance and life insurance solution. In addition, the company provides Gamma Voice Solution, an AI customer service for support customer service functions; and Gamma FinCloud, which allows entities with expensive-to-replace legacy systems to directly migrate to the cloud to securely maintain their data. Further, it offers information transmission, information technology advisory, E-commerce security certificate administration, technology promotion and computer application, software and technology, insurance survey and loss adjustment, and asset management and consulting services. The company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, the People's Republic of China.
Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.
OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. has a Value Score of 95, which is considered to be undervalued.
OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.66.
You can read more about OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.
Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.’s Value Grade
Value Grade:
| Metric | Score | SNCR | Industry Median |
| Price/Sales | 23 | 0.65 | 3.90 |
| Price/Earnings | na | na | 41.9 |
| EV/EBITDA | 39 | 10.2 | 22.4 |
| Shareholder Yield | 72 | (3.7%) | (2.6%) |
| Price/Book Value | 37 | 1.14 | 3.66 |
| Price/Free Cash Flow | 37 | 14.4 | 32.7 |
Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. provides cloud, messaging, digital, and network management solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company offers Synchronoss Personal Cloud platform that allows customers’ subscribers to backup and protect, engage with, and manage their personal content. It also provides Synchronoss’ Messaging platform comprising advanced messaging platform and email suites; and OnboardX products, including mobile content transfer solution that offers wireless transfer of content from one mobile smart device to another in a carrier retail location or at home/work, etc., as well as out of box experience solution, a device setup solution that assists customers in setting up the features of new device, such as Wi-Fi, email, social network accounts and voicemail, prompting restoration of content, and enrollment in a cloud service. In addition, the company provides NetworkX products comprising spatialNX, an enterprise-wide access to network information, including physical location, specifications, attributes, connectivity, and capacity for every plant asset; ConnectNX, a system that eliminates manual handling of service orders and manages the full order lifecycle between customer and supplier through automation and rules-based validation; and ExpenseNX, a financial analytics platform. Further, it offers professional services, such as consulting, installation and deployment, configuration, systems integration, and support services; and software development and customization services. The company markets and sells its services through direct sales force and strategic partners. Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. was incorporated in 2000 and is headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are value and so on.
Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. has a Value Score of 61, which is considered to be undervalued.
Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.66.
You can read more about Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.’s key financial metrics like shareholder yield, price-to-free-cash-flow and EV/EBITDA ratio, or learn more about its Momentum and Growth Grades, by subscribing to A+ Investor.
Other Software Stock Grades
Value is just one of the five Stock Grades included in our A+ Investor service. AAII members can see the top-graded stocks—those with grades of A or B for value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality—on the A+ Stock Grades Screener.
Also, if you want full access to all of AAII’s premium services, you can subscribe to one convenient bundled plan called AAII Platinum where you can try out A+ Investor, AAII Dividend Investing, the Stock Superstars Report, Growth Investing and VMQ Stocks. With the other premium services, you can dive deep into additional metrics, portfolios, commentary and information about Software stocks as well as other industrys.
Choosing Which of the 6 Best Software Stocks Is Right for You
Choosing which value stocks to invest in will ultimately depend on your individual goals and allocation; however, comparing similar value stocks in the same industry can help you analyze which might be better investments for you in the long run. So, let’s take a look at the Value Grade for all of our stocks.
- Bridgeline Digital, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.
- Cheetah Mobile Inc. stock has a Value Grade of A.
- Aurora Mobile Limited stock has a Value Grade of A.
- Karooooo Ltd. stock has a Value Grade of B.
- OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. stock has a Value Grade of A.
- Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.
Now that you have a bit more background about each of the 6 undervalued stocks in the Software industry as well as their overall grades, it’s time for you to conduct additional research to see if these could fit your portfolio needs based on your goals and risk tolerance. AAII can help you figure out both and identify which investments align with what works best for you.
We do so through a program of education that teaches you to invest for yourself and become an effective manager of your own wealth—no more relying on others for your financial independence. You can rely on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis that makes you a better investor.
A+ Investor adds to that qualitative teaching by giving you a powerful data suite that helps you whittle down investment decisions to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.
Additional Resources About Software Stocks
Want to learn more about Software stocks to see if they could be the right investment for you? Check out some additional resources and articles to help you on your financial journey.
- 6 Undervalued Software Stocks for Tuesday, October 22
- 7 Undervalued Software Stocks for Monday, October 21
- 3 Undervalued Software Stocks for Friday, October 18
- 4 Undervalued Software Stocks for Thursday, October 17
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We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.
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