CRA International (CRAI) Competitors

CRA International (NASDAQ:CRAI) and Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO) are both business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, earnings and media sentiment.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of CRAI or EXPO?

84.1% of CRA International shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Exponent shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.7% of CRA International shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.1% of Exponent shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Does the MarketBeat Community prefer CRAI or EXPO?

Exponent received 128 more outperform votes than CRA International when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 63.17% of users gave Exponent an outperform vote while only 59.67% of users gave CRA International an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
CRA International	Outperform Votes 179 59.67%	Underperform Votes 121 40.33%
Exponent	Outperform Votes 307 63.17%	Underperform Votes 179 36.83%

Which has stronger earnings & valuation, CRAI or EXPO?

Exponent has lower revenue, but higher earnings than CRA International. CRA International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Exponent, 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
CRA International	$697.48M	1.83	$38.48M	$7.41	25.29
Exponent	$559.09M	7.03	$109M	$2.05	37.76

Is CRAI or EXPO more profitable?

Exponent has a net margin of 19.52% compared to CRA International's net margin of 6.79%. Exponent's return on equity of 27.27% beat CRA International's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
CRA International	6.79%	25.95%	9.39%
Exponent	19.52%	27.27%	15.24%

Does the media refer more to CRAI or EXPO?

In the previous week, Exponent had 3 more articles in the media than CRA International. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Exponent and 8 mentions for CRA International. Exponent's average media sentiment score of 1.18 beat CRA International's score of 0.62 indicating that Exponent is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
CRA International	2 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Exponent	9 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts rate CRAI or EXPO?

CRA International presently has a consensus target price of $228.00, indicating a potential upside of 21.65%. Exponent has a consensus target price of $120.00, indicating a potential upside of 55.04%. Given Exponent's higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Exponent is more favorable than CRA International.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
CRA International	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Exponent	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00

Which has more risk and volatility, CRAI or EXPO?

CRA International has a beta of 0.87, indicating that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exponent has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Is CRAI or EXPO a better dividend stock?

CRA International pays an annual dividend of $1.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Exponent pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. CRA International pays out 26.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Exponent pays out 58.5% 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. CRA International has increased its dividend for 7 consecutive years and Exponent has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years. Exponent is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Exponent beats CRA International on 15 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.