Based on key financial metrics such as the price-to-sales ratio, shareholder yield and the price-earnings ratio, the following 3 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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3 Undervalued Software Stocks

Of course, there are countless value stocks that are worth mentioning, but this is a concise list of the top 3 undervalued stocks in the Software industry for Friday, November 15, 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.

ON24, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

ON24, Inc. provides a cloud-based intelligent engagement platform that enables businesses to convert customer engagement into revenue through interactive webinar, virtual event, and multimedia content experiences worldwide. The company provides ON24 Elite, for live and interactive webinar experience; ON24 Breakouts, for live breakout room experience that facilitates networking, collaboration, and interactivity between users; ON24 Forums, for live and interactive experience, which facilitates video-to-video interaction between presenters and audiences; ON24 Go Live, for live and interactive video event experience that enables presenters and attendees to engage face-to-face in real-time; and ON24 Virtual Confrence, for live and large scale managed virtual event experience. It also offers ON24 Engagement Hub, for always-on multimedia content experience; ON24 Target, for personalized and curated landing page experience; ON24 Intelligence, for analytics backbone that captures first-person data to power the insights, benchmarking, reporting, and artificial intelligence and machine learning engine; ON24 AI-powered ACE, for enabling hyper-personalization at scale across ON24 experiences; ON24 Connect, for ecosystem of third-party application integrations; and ON24 Services and Platform Support, which provides a portfolio of professional services that provide consulting and support for product and platform adoption. In addition, the company offers consulting services, such as experience management, monitoring and production, implementation, and other support services. It sells its products through direct sales. The company serves technology, financial services, healthcare, industrial and manufacturing, professional services, and business-to-business information service companies. The company was formerly known as NewsDirect, Inc. and changed its name to ON24, Inc. in December 1998. ON24, Inc. was incorporated in 1998 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

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.

ON24, Inc. has a Value Score of 71, which is considered to be undervalued.

When you look at ON24, Inc.’s price-to-sales ratio at 1.84 compared to the industry median at 4.07, this company has a lower price relative to revenue compared to its peers. This could make ON24, 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. ON24, 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. ON24, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is lower than its industry median ratio of 4.05. This could make ON24, Inc. more attractive to investors looking for a new addition to their portfolio.

Soluna Holdings, Inc.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

Soluna Holdings, Inc. together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mining of cryptocurrency through data centers. It operates through two segments, Cryptocurrency Mining and Data Center Hosting. The company also operates in the blockchain business. In addition, the company develops and builds modular data centers that use for cryptocurrency mining. Further, it provides data center hosting services, including electrical power and network connectivity to cryptocurrency mining customers. The company was formerly known as Mechanical Technology Inc and as changed to Soluna Holdings, Inc. Soluna Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is headquartered in Albany, New York.

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.

Soluna Holdings, Inc. has a Value Score of 61, which is considered to be undervalued.

Soluna Holdings, Inc.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make Soluna Holdings, Inc. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 4.05.

You can read more about Soluna Holdings, 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.

X3 Holdings Co., Ltd.’s Value Grade

Value Grade:

X3 Holdings Co., Ltd., through its subsidiaries, provides software application and technology services to corporate and government customers engaged in global trade. The company offers digital transformation solutions that include developing a suite of cross-border digital trade platforms and services. It provides global digital trade platforms and services comprising cross-border trades, logistics and shipping, customs clearance, and transactions and settlements to international trading partners, logistics service providers, customs authorities, and other government agencies; and fintech services for financial institutions for enhancing risk control and ensuring efficient supply chain financing. In addition, the company offers digital solutions and services for developing and operating free trade zones, bonded goods facilities, cross border trade zones, and other regulated trade zones and facilities; blockchain applications enable supply chain transparency, streamlined customs clearance, expedited import and export process, and increased international trade volume for the regulated trade zones; and global trade supply chain and compliance platforms and solutions that facilitates streamlined documentation process and integrated data sharing relating to customs, tax, logistics and shipping, and strengthen collaboration for multinational manufacturing and international trade enterprises. It also engages in bitcoin cryptomining operations, renewable energy projects, and agriculture technologies and trading. The company was formerly known as Powerbridge Technologies Co., Ltd. and changed its name to X3 Holdings Co., Ltd. in January 2024. X3 Holdings Co Ltd. was founded in 1997 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.

X3 Holdings Co., Ltd. has a Value Score of 95, which is considered to be undervalued.

X3 Holdings Co., Ltd.’s price-to-book ratio is higher than its peers. This could make X3 Holdings Co., Ltd. less attractive for value investors when compared to the industry median at 4.05.

You can read more about X3 Holdings 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.

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 3 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.

• ON24, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• Soluna Holdings, Inc. stock has a Value Grade of B.
• X3 Holdings Co., Ltd. stock has a Value Grade of A.

Now that you have a bit more background about each of the 3 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.

• 3 Undervalued Software Stocks for Friday, November 15
• 7 Undervalued Software Stocks for Thursday, November 14
• 3 Undervalued Software Stocks for Wednesday, November 13
• 4 Undervalued Software Stocks for Tuesday, November 12

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.