Barrett Business Services (BBSI) Competitors

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

Do institutionals and insiders believe in BBSI or PAYX?

86.8% of Barrett Business Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.5% of Paychex shares are held by institutional investors. 4.1% of Barrett Business Services shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 11.4% of Paychex shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

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 3.2%. 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.

Which has better earnings and valuation, 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	1.09	$52.99M	$2.03	23.92
Paychex	$5.57B	8.77	$1.66B	$4.57	29.68

Do analysts rate BBSI or PAYX?

Barrett Business Services currently has a consensus target price of $47.00, indicating a potential downside of 3.19%. Paychex has a consensus target price of $149.70, indicating a potential upside of 10.37%. Given Paychex's higher probable upside, analysts clearly 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

Does the media prefer BBSI or PAYX?

In the previous week, Paychex had 7 more articles in the media than Barrett Business Services. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for Paychex and 11 mentions for Barrett Business Services. Paychex's average media sentiment score of 1.53 beat Barrett Business Services' score of 0.92 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	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Paychex	15 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	2 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%

Which has more risk and volatility, BBSI or PAYX?

Barrett Business Services has a beta of 1.01, indicating that its share price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Paychex has a beta of 0.91, indicating that its share price is 9% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Paychex beats Barrett Business Services on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.