Barrett Business Services (BBSI) Competitors

Barrett Business Services (NASDAQ:BBSI) and Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) are related companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their media sentiment, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends and analyst recommendations.

Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in BBSI or PAYX?

86.8% of Barrett Business Services shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.5% of Paychex shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.1% of Barrett Business Services shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.4% of Paychex shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has higher valuation & earnings, BBSI or PAYX?

Paychex has higher revenue and earnings than Barrett Business Services. Barrett Business Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Paychex, 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
Barrett Business Services	$1.14B	1.07	$52.99M	$2.03	23.53
Paychex	$5.57B	8.96	$1.66B	$4.57	30.33

Do analysts recommend BBSI or PAYX?

Barrett Business Services presently has a consensus target price of $47.00, suggesting a potential downside of 1.59%. Paychex has a consensus target price of $150.20, suggesting a potential upside of 8.36%. Given Paychex's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Paychex is more favorable than Barrett Business Services.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barrett Business Services	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Paychex	1 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	0 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	1.91

Which has more volatility and risk, BBSI or PAYX?

Barrett Business Services has a beta of 1.02, meaning that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Paychex has a beta of 0.91, meaning that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BBSI or PAYX a better dividend stock?

Barrett Business Services pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Paychex pays an annual dividend of $4.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Barrett Business Services pays out 15.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Paychex pays out 94.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Barrett Business Services has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years and Paychex has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Paychex is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media favor BBSI or PAYX?

In the previous week, Barrett Business Services had 1 more articles in the media than Paychex. MarketBeat recorded 30 mentions for Barrett Business Services and 29 mentions for Paychex. Paychex's average media sentiment score of 1.64 beat Barrett Business Services' score of 0.88 indicating that Paychex is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Barrett Business Services	9 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	6 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Paychex	26 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Is BBSI or PAYX more profitable?

Paychex has a net margin of 29.75% compared to Barrett Business Services' net margin of 4.49%. Paychex's return on equity of 45.01% beat Barrett Business Services' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barrett Business Services	4.49%	24.59%	7.27%
Paychex	29.75%	45.01%	14.77%

Summary

Paychex beats Barrett Business Services on 13 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.