Barrett Business Services (BBSI) Competitors

Robert Half (NYSE:RHI) and Barrett Business Services (NASDAQ:BBSI) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, media sentiment, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, dividends and valuation.

Do analysts rate RHI or BBSI?

Robert Half currently has a consensus price target of $48.71, suggesting a potential upside of 13.03%. Barrett Business Services has a consensus price target of $45.00, suggesting a potential upside of 7.29%. Given Robert Half's higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Robert Half is more favorable than Barrett Business Services.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Robert Half	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.00
Barrett Business Services	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Do institutionals and insiders believe in RHI or BBSI?

92.4% of Robert Half shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 86.8% of Barrett Business Services shares are held by institutional investors. 3.1% of Robert Half shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.1% of Barrett Business Services shares are held by 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.

Which has more risk and volatility, RHI or BBSI?

Robert Half has a beta of 1, indicating that its stock price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Barrett Business Services has a beta of 0.99, indicating that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has better valuation and earnings, RHI or BBSI?

Robert Half has higher revenue and earnings than Barrett Business Services. Barrett Business Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Robert Half, 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
Robert Half	$5.80B	0.76	$251.60M	$2.00	21.55
Barrett Business Services	$1.14B	0.94	$52.99M	$1.95	21.51

Does the media favor RHI or BBSI?

In the previous week, Robert Half had 10 more articles in the media than Barrett Business Services. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Robert Half and 1 mentions for Barrett Business Services. Barrett Business Services' average media sentiment score of 0.93 beat Robert Half's score of 0.84 indicating that Barrett Business Services is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Overall Sentiment
Robert Half	Positive
Barrett Business Services	Positive

Is RHI or BBSI a better dividend stock?

Robert Half pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.5%. Barrett Business Services pays an annual dividend of $0.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Robert Half pays out 118.0% 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 pays out 16.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Robert Half has raised its dividend for 22 consecutive years and Barrett Business Services has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Robert Half is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is RHI or BBSI more profitable?

Barrett Business Services has a net margin of 4.45% compared to Robert Half's net margin of 3.62%. Barrett Business Services' return on equity of 24.55% beat Robert Half's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Robert Half	3.62%	14.54%	7.16%
Barrett Business Services	4.45%	24.55%	7.09%

Summary

Robert Half beats Barrett Business Services on 11 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.