SThree (STEM) Competitors

Hays (LON:HAS) and SThree (LON:STEM) are both small-cap industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, earnings, profitability, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends and media sentiment.

Is HAS or STEM a better dividend stock?

Hays pays an annual dividend of GBX 3 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. SThree pays an annual dividend of GBX 17 per share and has a dividend yield of 8.3%. Hays pays out -962.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. SThree pays out 45.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, HAS or STEM?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Hays	£6.91B	0.15	-£4.87M	-£0.31	-205.63
SThree	£1.47B	0.18	£48.77M	£37.80	5.44

Which has more volatility and risk, HAS or STEM?

Hays has a beta of 1.13, indicating that its stock price is 13% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, SThree has a beta of 0.98, indicating that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend HAS or STEM?

Hays presently has a consensus target price of GBX 93.33, indicating a potential upside of 45.61%. SThree has a consensus target price of GBX 350, indicating a potential upside of 70.32%. Given SThree's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe SThree is more favorable than Hays.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Hays	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
SThree	0 Sell rating(s)	1 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67

Is HAS or STEM more profitable?

SThree has a net margin of 3.33% compared to Hays' net margin of -0.07%. SThree's return on equity of 20.90% beat Hays' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Hays	-0.07%	-0.84%	2.27%
SThree	3.33%	20.90%	10.67%

Do insiders & institutionals believe in HAS or STEM?

91.2% of Hays shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.8% of SThree shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of Hays shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 6.2% of SThree shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the media favor HAS or STEM?

In the previous week, Hays had 8 more articles in the media than SThree. MarketBeat recorded 8 mentions for Hays and 0 mentions for SThree. Hays' average media sentiment score of 0.31 beat SThree's score of 0.00 indicating that Hays is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Hays	Neutral
SThree	Neutral

Summary

SThree beats Hays on 10 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.