StarTek (NYSE:SRT) and Cross Country Healthcare (NASDAQ:CCRN) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for StarTek and Cross Country Healthcare, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score |
---|
StarTek | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3.00 |
Cross Country Healthcare | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2.38 |
StarTek currently has a consensus target price of $8.00, indicating a potential downside of 0.25%. Cross Country Healthcare has a consensus target price of $9.00, indicating a potential downside of 2.81%. Given StarTek's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe StarTek is more favorable than Cross Country Healthcare.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
15.2% of StarTek shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.4% of Cross Country Healthcare shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.4% of StarTek shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of Cross Country Healthcare shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares StarTek and Cross Country Healthcare's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets |
---|
StarTek | -5.76% | -0.14% | -0.06% |
Cross Country Healthcare | -2.24% | 8.11% | 3.42% |
Volatility & Risk
StarTek has a beta of 1.27, meaning that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cross Country Healthcare has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its share price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares StarTek and Cross Country Healthcare's gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio |
---|
StarTek | $657.91 million | 0.49 | $-15,020,000.00 | $0.08 | 100.25 |
Cross Country Healthcare | $822.22 million | 0.42 | $-57,710,000.00 | $0.15 | 61.73 |
StarTek has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Cross Country Healthcare. Cross Country Healthcare is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than StarTek, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Summary
Cross Country Healthcare beats StarTek on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.