Based on key financial metrics such as the price-to-sales ratio, shareholder yield and the price-earnings ratio, the following 5 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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5 Undervalued Software Stocks

Of course, there are countless value stocks that are worth mentioning, but this is a concise list of the top 5 undervalued stocks in the Software industry for Friday, November 01, 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.

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.

Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

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 87, which is considered to be undervalued.

When you look at Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s price-to-sales ratio at 0.18 compared to the industry median at 3.73, this company has a lower price relative to revenue compared to its peers. This could make Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s stock more attractive for value investors.

Now, let’s assess Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s EV/EBITDA ratio, also known as enterprise multiple. At 9.1, when compared to the industry median of 23.2, the company may be considered undervalued in relation to its peers. Value investors could use the enterprise multiple to identify stocks that are considered overvalued or undervalued relative to their industry.

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. Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s shareholder yield is lower 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. Cheetah Mobile Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 3.41. This could make Cheetah Mobile Inc. more attractive to investors looking for a new addition to their portfolio.

Oblong, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Oblong, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides multi-stream collaboration technologies and managed services for video collaboration and network applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Collaboration Products and Managed Services. Its flagship product is Mezzanine that enables visual collaboration across multi-users, multi-screens, multi-devices, and multi-locations for video telepresence, laptop and application sharing, and whiteboard sharing and slides applications. The company also provides managed videoconferencing services; and remote service management, which offers an overlay to enterprise information technology and channel partner support organizations, as well as support and management services for customer video environments. In addition, it provides network solutions, including Cloud Connect: Video that allows its customers to outsource the management of their video traffic to them and provides the customer’s office locations with a secure, dedicated video network connection to the Oblong Cloud for video communications; Cloud Connect: Converge, which offers customized multiprotocol label switching solutions; and Cloud Connect: Cross Connect that allows the customer to leverage existing carrier for the extension of a Layer 2 private line to its data center. The company serves a range of industries comprising aerospace, consulting, executive search, broadcast media, legal, insurance, technology, financial services, education, healthcare, real estate, retail, construction, hospitality, and others, as well as government sector. Oblong, Inc. is based in Denver, Colorado.

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.

Oblong, Inc. has a Value Score of 81, which is considered to be undervalued.

Oblong, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Oblong, Inc. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 3.41.

You can read more about Oblong, 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.

OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

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 94, 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 3.41.

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.

Porch Group, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Porch Group, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates a vertical software and insurance platform in the United States. The company operates in two segments, Vertical Software and Insurance. The Vertical Software segment provides software and services to inspection, mortgage, and title companies on a subscription and transactional basis, as well as move and post-move services. This segment offers inspection software and services, title insurance software, mortgage software, moving services, mover and homeowner marketing, and measurement software for roofers. The Insurance segment offers consumers with insurance and warranty products to protect their homes. This segment provides property-related insurance and captive reinsurance products; and warranty products under the Porch Warranty, American Home Protect, and Residential Warranty Services brands. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.

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.

Porch Group, Inc. has a Value Score of 72, which is considered to be undervalued.

You can read more about Porch Group, 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.

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

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 3.41.

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 5 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.

• Cheetah Mobile Inc. stock has a Value Grade of A.
• Oblong, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of A.
• OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. stock has a Value Grade of A.
• Porch Group, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.

Now that you have a bit more background about each of the 5 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.

• 5 Undervalued Software Stocks for Friday, November 01
• Meeting Your Asset Allocation Needs With Schwab Funds and ETFs
• Should You Consider a Weighting in Gold?
• When Diversification Takes a Back Seat in Index Funds

AAII Disclaimer

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.