VSE (VSEC) Competitors

VSE (NASDAQ:VSEC) and FTI Consulting (NYSE:FCN) are both mid-cap research & consulting services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, earnings, valuation, media sentiment, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Do analysts recommend VSEC or FCN?

VSE currently has a consensus price target of $145.00, indicating a potential downside of 11.65%. FTI Consulting has a consensus price target of $175.50, indicating a potential upside of 4.63%. Given FTI Consulting's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe FTI Consulting is more favorable than VSE.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
VSE	0 Sell rating(s)	0 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
FTI Consulting	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.33

Is VSEC or FCN more profitable?

FTI Consulting has a net margin of 6.82% compared to VSE's net margin of 1.94%. FTI Consulting's return on equity of 12.88% beat VSE's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VSE	1.94%	7.25%	4.14%
FTI Consulting	6.82%	12.88%	7.90%

Which has preferable earnings and valuation, VSEC or FCN?

FTI Consulting has higher revenue and earnings than VSE. FTI Consulting is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than VSE, 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
VSE	$1.25B	2.71	$15.32M	$1.12	146.54
FTI Consulting	$3.66B	1.48	$280.09M	$7.10	23.62

Do insiders and institutionals have more ownership in VSEC or FCN?

91.5% of VSE shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 99.4% of FTI Consulting shares are held by institutional investors. 14.6% of VSE shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of FTI Consulting 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.

Which has more risk & volatility, VSEC or FCN?

VSE has a beta of 1.33, meaning that its share price is 33% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, FTI Consulting has a beta of 0.18, meaning that its share price is 82% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor VSEC or FCN?

In the previous week, FTI Consulting had 13 more articles in the media than VSE. MarketBeat recorded 18 mentions for FTI Consulting and 5 mentions for VSE. VSE's average media sentiment score of 0.87 beat FTI Consulting's score of 0.78 indicating that VSE is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
VSE	2 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
FTI Consulting	6 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	10 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

FTI Consulting beats VSE on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.