Comparing HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) & Heidrick & Struggles International (NASDAQ:HSII)

HireQuest (NASDAQ:HQI) and Heidrick & Struggles International (NASDAQ:HSII) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Risk and Volatility

HireQuest has a beta of 1.22, suggesting that its share price is 22% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Heidrick & Struggles International has a beta of 1.06, suggesting that its share price is 6% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for HireQuest and Heidrick & Struggles International, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
HireQuest	0	0	1	0	3.00
Heidrick & Struggles International	0	1	1	0	2.50

HireQuest currently has a consensus price target of $13.00, suggesting a potential upside of 33.20%. Heidrick & Struggles International has a consensus price target of $51.00, suggesting a potential upside of 0.37%. Given HireQuest’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe HireQuest is more favorable than Heidrick & Struggles International.

Dividends

HireQuest pays an annual dividend of $0.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. Heidrick & Struggles International pays an annual dividend of $0.60 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. HireQuest pays out 133.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Heidrick & Struggles International pays out 37.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares HireQuest and Heidrick & Struggles International”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
HireQuest	$34.60 million	3.98	$3.67 million	$0.18	54.22
Heidrick & Struggles International	$1.12 billion	0.94	$8.73 million	$1.59	31.96

Heidrick & Struggles International has higher revenue and earnings than HireQuest. Heidrick & Struggles International is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than HireQuest, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

12.0% of HireQuest shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.1% of Heidrick & Struggles International shares are owned by institutional investors. 43.5% of HireQuest shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Heidrick & Struggles International shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares HireQuest and Heidrick & Struggles International’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
HireQuest	7.47%	13.88%	9.35%
Heidrick & Struggles International	2.92%	14.85%	6.24%

Summary

HireQuest beats Heidrick & Struggles International on 9 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About HireQuest

HireQuest, Inc. provides temporary staffing services in the United States. It offers staffing services, including direct-dispatch, executive search, consultant, unskilled and semi-skilled industrial and construction personnel, clerical and administrative personnel, and permanent placement services, as well as commercial and non-CDL drivers, and skilled personnel in the medical and dental industries. The company provides its services under the HireQuest Direct, HireQuest, SNelling, DriverQuest, HireQuest Health, Northbound Executive Search, and MRI trade names. It serves construction, recycling, warehousing, logistics, auctioneering, manufacturing, hospitality, landscaping, and retail industries, as well as dental practices. HireQuest, Inc. was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Goose Creek, South Carolina.

About Heidrick & Struggles International

Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. engages in provision of leadership consulting, culture shaping and senior-level executive search services. It offers its clients build leadership teams through facilitating the recruitment, management and deployment of senior executives. It operates under the following segments: Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Heidrick Consulting, and On Demand Talent Business. The company was founded by Gardner Heidrick and John Struggles in 1953 and is headquartered in Chicago, IL.